Samantha Mobley and Farin Harrison • In recent years, the investment policy landscape has become more complex as nations respond to national security threats, state development strategies and geopolitical risks. Covid-19 created a major economic shock worldwide, prompting some countries to take an even more stringent approach, with a focus on protecting the security of supply of inputs.• Many jurisdictions continue to tighten their screening rules or are introducing robust new measures to protect strategically…
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…
In brief In June 2022, the governments of Belgium’s nine federated entities have, after lengthy negotiations, agreed on the text of a cooperation agreement (Cooperation Agreement) implementing a screening mechanism of general application for foreign direct investments into Belgium. The screening mechanism is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2023. While the text is still subject to change[1], the fact that an agreement on a screening mechanism of general application has been reached…
On 20 May 2022, The Italian Parliament confirmed Law-Decree No. 21/2022 which the Government had enacted in March 2022 to introduce certain significant changes to the Italian rules on foreign investments review (FIR) in response to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (see our article here). The result is Law No. 51 dated 20 May 2022 (Law 51/2022). By way of background, in the Italian constitutional framework, the issuance of State-wide laws falls within the domain…
On 5 April 2022, the European Commission published new guidance for EU Member States relating to foreign direct investment from Russia and Belarus. The full blog post, “EU Commission publishes Guidance on Foreign Direct Investment from Russia and Belarus” can be found here.
Pursuant to the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (Außenwirtschaftsgesetz – AWG) and the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance (Außenwirtschaftsverordnung – AWV), investments into German entities may be subject to the review of the German foreign investment review laws framework. Investments into entities operating in specific, particularly sensitive, business areas, such as for example the operation of critical infrastructure, may be subject to a notification and clearance requirement. The legislative act specifying what qualifies as critical…
On 23 December 2021, the Italian Government extended a significant number of mandatory terms in order to ensure the continuity and efficiency of the administration of the Italian State in the context of the Covid-19 emergency. Among these terms, the Government included also those terms concerning the application of certain emergency provisions connected to the Italian foreign investment review (FIR) regime, also known as “Golden Power”. In particular, by way of Law Decree No. 228…
On 19 October 2021, the EU Commission published its 2022 Work Programme (the “Programme”), which sets out the key goals that the EU Commission hopes to achieve in 2022. Chief amongst these is a desire to make “A Europe Fit for the Digital Age”, with a key proposal to achieve this being a possible “European Chips Act”. In the Programme, the EU Commission has stated that it will publish a proposal for a European Chips…
An amendment to the Austrian Competition Act, which entered into force on 10 September 2021, requires the Austrian Competition Authority to share all merger control filings it receives with the Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs (BMDW), which is the competent authority for foreign investment review in Austria. This new measure is aimed at strengthening the enforcement of foreign investment review in Austria, by allowing the BMDW to screen merger control filings with regard to potential foreign investment…
On 23 March 2021, the EU opened a public consultation (the “Consultation”) on its plan to introduce a new mechanism to deter and counter potentially coercive actions by non-EU countries which seek to pressure the EU or its member countries into taking or withdrawing particular policy measures, and which impact the economic and geopolitical interests of the EU and its Member States. According to the EU, the new legal instrument will be designed to “empower…