On 11 October 2020, the EU screening mechanism for foreign direct investments potentially affecting security and public order in an EU Member State or in the whole EU became fully operational. This follows the adoption of the EU Foreign Direct Investment Regulation in March 2019 (see our previous updates here and here), when the European Commission (“Commission”) and the Member States established a coordination framework, consisting of various separate national screening mechanisms. The EU screening…

On 23 September 2020, the European Commission (“Commission”) ended a public consultation into proposals to create new review mechanisms aimed at countering distortive effects of foreign subsidies in the EU single market. The premise of the proposals is that some companies operating within the EU may be at an unfair competitive advantage, if they are receiving foreign subsidies not available to their EU counterparts due to state aid rules. The new mechanisms would apply to…