EU Issues Reports on FDI Screening and Export Controls
The European Commission on Sept. 1 adopted two reports -- one on the screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) and one on the Export Controls Regulation, it said Sept. 2. The commission said it analyzed over 400 FDIs into the EU in 2021 to ensure that none of the money threatened EU countries' security, and found all but two EU member states have implemented screening mechanisms or are in the process of putting them in place. The commission carried out its FDI screening quickly, with 86% of assessments being completed within 15 calendar days, the commission said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The FDI report further laid out investment patterns, showing that the top five countries for investors in 2021 were the U.S. and the U.K., China, the Cayman Islands and Canada. Russian FDI, one of the commission's largest concerns, constituted less than 1.5% of all investment, and Belarussian FDI made up just 0.2%. A plurality of the FDI, 44%, concerned manufacturing, more specifically touching industries such as defense, aerospace, energy, health and semiconductor equipment; 32% of the FDI concerned information and communications technology.
The export controls report -- the second of its kind under the upgraded Export Controls Regulations that came into force in September 2021 -- covered dual-use exports, showing authorized exports of these goods in 2020 totaled around $31 billion. The commission said new EU rules have strengthened export controls by bringing in a new "human security" dimension, "simplifying procedures and making the export control system more agile and transparent." The report said "expert work" is being developed on cybersurveillance and emerging technologies, with a keen eye trained on enforcement by member states.