Update on Outbound Investment Screening: Current Developments in the EU and US

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - November 2023

By Konstantin Ahlers, PhD Candidate at the Leibniz Universität Hannover 1. Introduction  Since the European Commission added the regulation of Outbound Investments onto its 2023 Working Program in fall 2022 and President Biden signed the Executive order to restrict Outbound Investments by US- persons in summer 2023, a lot has happened in regard of Outbound…

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How to Prevent the EU from Falling Behind?

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - November 2023

By Bruno Dupré, Political Advisor for the Indian Ocean, European External Action Service   Summary The future of Europe does not depend on what President Trump thinks or will do. Nobody knows and he is to a certain extent unpredictable. The future of Europe will depend on our capacity to take our destiny in our…

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Balancing Security and Economics: The EU Investment Screening Mechanism

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - November 2023

By Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Antonio Calcara (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) and Dirk De Bièvre (University of Antwerp) In the EU, Member States and the Commission are increasingly turning to trade and investment tools to address national security issues. In the face of concerns over technology leakage, supply chain resilience, dependencies in critical industries, data…

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The European Commission’s Fourth Annual Report on FDI Screening

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - November 2023

By Sophie Bohnert, CELIS Blog A. Introduction This October is the month of investment screening. Not only did CFIS 2024, hosted by the CELIS Institute and convened by Steffen Hindelang and Roland Stein, take place in Paris (France) from 16 to 18 October 2024. It is also the month in which the European Commission (“EC”)…

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Commission’s Discretion, Court’s Self-restraint. On the EU Court’s Approach to Reviewing Fines in Competition Cases

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - December 2023

By Robert Foyle, University College Dublin*   The General Court consistently defers to the European Commission’s discretion and fining guidelines when imposing fines. This change limits judicial intervention and may undermine defendants’ rights. A reliance on the Commission’s Guidelines has contributed to this restrained approach, raising concerns about the implications for fair competition enforcement.  …

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Is the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation compatible with WTO Law?

CELIS Update on Investment Screening - December 2023

By Pierfrancesco Mattiolo, University of Antwerp  The blog post summarizes parts of the article ‘The EU’s New Regime on Foreign Subsidies: Has the Time Come for a Paradigm-Shift?’ published by Professor Csongor Nagy in the Journal of World Trade. The paper is available here. State Capitalist Economies and the WTO It is no mystery that,…

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‘A Chain Works Just as Well as its Weakest Link’ – CFIS Keynote and Roundtable on the Review of the EU FDI Screening Regulation

CELIS Events

By Ass.-Prof. Dr. Lena Hornkohl, University of Vienna / CELIS Deputy Director   The annual conference of the CELIS Institute dealt with the pivotal question of Investment Screening and Economic Security and its current challenges. CFIS 2023 was held in Prague from 11 – 13 October 2023 and consisted of a private and a public part.…

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The Anti-Coercion Instrument has been adopted

Thomas Verellen

By Ass.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Verellen, University of Utrecht [1]   On October 23rd, 2023, the Council adopted the Anti-Coercion Instrument. The adoption by the Council comes a couple of weeks after the European Parliament gave its consent to the instrument on October 3rd. The Council’s press release states that the regulation will be signed on November…

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Economic Security in the EU: Key Takeaways from CFIS 2023

Roland Stein @ CELIS.institute

By Dr. Roland Stein, LL.M. Eur., BLOMSTEIN / CELIS Deputy Director   The CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS) 2023 conference in Prague provided valuable insights into the multifaceted realm of economic security in the European Union (EU). The discussions centered on critical issues such as the screening of foreign inward direct investments, outward investment controls,…

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It’s that time of year again: The European Commission’s Third Annual Report on FDI Screening is out!

Sophie Bohnert

By Sophie Bohnert, Vienna University of Economics and Business/College of Europe   Introduction On 19 October 2023, the European Commission (“EC”) published its Annual Report on the screening of foreign direct investments into the Union (“Report”), covering the year 2022. This Report is accompanied by the usual Staff Working Document. This is the third report…

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National Interest and Freedom of Establishment: The CJEU’s Judgment in Xella

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – June 2023

By Bálint Kovács In its judgment[1] published on 13 July 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Hungary’s decision to prohibit an investment by a foreign-owned Hungarian company aiming to acquire a Hungarian company violated the freedom of establishment. The prohibition involved the use of the novel foreign direct investment…

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