On 2 September 2022, the European Commission published its second report on FDI screening, and the first one to cover an entire calendar year following the commencement of the EU FDI Screening Regulation in October 2020 (see our previous posts here and here).
Since then, the Commission notes that it has screened over 740 transactions under its FDI mechanism and found that the “vast majority” of transactions did not pose a problem from a security or public order perspective, with less than 3% of transactions resulting in a Commission opinion.
The assessment of FDI transactions notified by Member States to the Commission has generally been swift – usually within 15 calendar days. Of all the cases notified in 2021, 28% (compared to 29% in the first report) constituted multi-jurisdictional FDI transactions because they concerned (and were notified by) several Member States.
In relation to investment patterns, the report shows that the top five countries for the ultimate investor notified in 2021 were as follows: US, the UK, China, the Cayman Islands and Canada. Most cases notified concerned the “manufacturing” sector (44%) – covering a wide range of industries including defence, aerospace, energy, health and semiconductor equipment – as well as the Information and Communications Technologies (32%) sector.
The Report considers that the EU’s FDI regulation has worked “quickly and efficiently” with the Commission “firmly” expecting that additional Member States will soon adopt and strengthen their national FDI screening regimes. The Commission also noted that it will conclude its study on the FDI cooperation mechanism shortly this year. The study will contribute to the Commission’s reflections on the potential need for a revision of the FDI Screening Regulation in 2023.
