CELIS Blog

The CELIS Blog: Fueling the Conversation on Economic Security. The CELIS Blog is a unique forum for current debates on international investment control and economic security law and practice more broadly. It brings the latest developments and analysis to you. From economic security (law) experts – to economic security (law) experts.

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CELIS–Arnold & Porter Blog Series on Investment Security x Investment Arbitration

Introducing the CELIS–Arnold & Porter Initiative on Investment Security x Investment Arbitration

Authors: Steffen Hindelang (Uppsala University; CELIS Institute), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) and Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute) Most international rules governing foreign investment still breathe the air of the liberal, if ...
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Constraints on the State’s Right to Screen Foreign Investments Prior to Market Entry

Authors: Steffen Hindelang (Uppsala University; CELIS Institute), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) and Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute)    Introduction  As a starting point, a State enjoys broad authority to regulate the admission of foreign investment ...
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Post-Establishment Phase: FDI Screening Decisions and the Treatment of Retroactive Measures in Investment Arbitration

Authors: Bart Wasiak (Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (UK) LLP) and Naina Gupta (Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (UK) LLP)    Introduction  Decisions concerning the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) are often taken at the post-establishment phase—after ...
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Shielding Foreign Investment Screening from Challenge under Investment Treaties

Author: Dr. Joshua Paine (University of Bristol)    Introduction  This post considers how States can design international investment agreements (“IIAs”) to prevent foreign investment screening measures from being subject to successful ...
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CELIS Special Blog Series on the Revision of the FDI Screening Regulation

Introducing: The Foreign (Direct) Investment Screening Regulation – A blog series on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452

Part I in the CELIS Blog Series on the Revision of the FDI Screening Regulation. Autors: Lena Hornkohl (University of Vienna)[1], Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of ...
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Tug-of-War? Determining the mandatory scope for the new FDI Screening Regulation

Part 2 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors:  Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Leonard von Rummel (Partner, Blomstein) ...
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To Screen or not to Screen? Defining the Deals that Count

Part 3 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors:  Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Kaarli Eichhorn (Antitrust Partner, Jones ...
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The Devil is in the Details – The Real Screening Report

Part 4 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors: Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels) Introduction The Commission published its 5th ...
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The Elephant in the Room: Subsidiarity in Investment Screening in the EU

Part 5 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/45 Authors: Andrew Hill (AmCham EU[1]), and Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp) Introduction White smoke poured over ...
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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What’s the Outcome of the Trilogue?

Part 6 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/45 Authors: Andrew Hill (Amcham Europe), and Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp) Introduction The clock has started ...
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CELIS–L&G Blog Series

Introducing: the CELIS-L&G Blogseries

Welcome, readers, to the inaugural blog post of a new collaboration between the academic journal Law & Geoeconomics (L&G) and the CELIS Institute. To set the tone, we decided to ...
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Proxies, Partners, or Opponents? Rethinking Business–Government Relations in Geoeconomic Competition

Authors: Olivier Schmitt (Royal Danish Defence College), Anna Vlasiuk Nibe (University of Southern Denmark) All articles in Law & Geoeconomics are available free of charge via Brill using the access token LGEO4U until 31 ...
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Why Economic Security Depends on Bureaucracy: The Hidden Side of Derisking

Authors:  M. Di Giulio (Associate Professor, Università di Genova), F. Baraldi (Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and M. Sguazzini (Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Università di Genova) This blog is part ...
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Can – and should – the EU align with US economic security policy?

Varg Folkman (Policy Analyst, the European Policy Centre) Introduction Back during Europe's summer of discontent in 2025, it went somewhat overlooked -  amidst the larger trade story -  that the ...
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The State of Exception in EU Investment Law

Author: Jochem de Kok (Affiliate Fellow at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance of the University of Amsterdam and Senior Associate at A&O Shearma) This blog post is ...
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Regulating Critical Minerals and Economic Security in South America: Brazil, Chile, and Argentina in Comparative Perspective

Authors: Natália de Lima Figueiredo (Assistant Professor, Federal University of São Paolo) & Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin (Associate Professor, FGV São Paulo School of Law) Introduction[1] "Economic security" has quickly ...
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The Small Yard Problem: How America and Japan De-Risk from China

Author: Timothy Cichanowicz (PhD Candidate, University of Kansas) This blog is part of the CELIS-L&G special series. All articles in Law & Geoeconomics are available free of charge via Brill using the ...
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Supply Chain Secondary Sanctions: How China Weaponised Lithuania’s Trade Links

Author: Verónica Fraile del Álamo (PhD Researcher, Australian National University) & Darren J. Lim (Senior Lecturer, Australian National University) This blog is part of the CELIS-L&G special series. All articles ...
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Latest Blog Posts

CELIS German Chapter Round Table in Berlin – 27th May 2025

CELIS German Chapter, BLOMSTEIN and Dentons jointly organize an economic policy Round Table on 27th May (17:00-19:00) in Berlin to discuss the impact of trade policy measures on investment decisions. In particular, the debate will focus on how new and complex trade policy measures on both sides of the Atlantic and their embedding in questions of economic security affect investment ...
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“MAL-TAming” – Malta aimed and Luxembourg tamed the Maltese investor citizenship scheme. Is there anything to learn from an FDI perspective?

  Johannes Barbist (Binder Grösswang, Partner) Malta and certain other EU member states (e.g., Cyprus, Bulgaria, partly even Austria) have been operating schemes with preferential access to citizenship or residence for quite some time and partly still do. The standard strenuous path to citizenship or right of residence in these EU member states could be eased into a fun downhill ...
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The EU Anti-Coercion Regulation: A New Tool Against Economic Pressure

Georgia Tzifa & Mariia Shulha (Wilmer Hale)* As global economic pressures mount, the EU has armed itself with a powerful new tool to counter economic coercion. The EU Anti-Coercion Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/2675) has been fully in force for about a year (officially entering into force on December 27, 2023) and is poised to shape the EU's trade defense strategy. ...
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CELIS Update on Investment Screening and Economic Security – March 2025

by Helene Schramm with the help of intern Surbhi Gupta   INVESTMENT SCREENING MECHANISMS   European Union – EU consults on Foreign Subsidies Regulation Guidelines On 5 March 2025, the European Commission published a Call for Evidence seeking feedback on the upcoming Guidelines regarding the implementation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”).   The FSR, effective since July 2023, empowers the ...
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Transatlantic Economic Security at a Crossroads: CELIS DC Leaders Meeting 2025

John Kay, Head of Programmes and Strategic Partnerships, CELIS Institute The United States and the European Union remains one of the most deeply integrated economic partnerships in the world with immense volumes of trade, joint investment, and overlapping financial infrastructure. U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe is roughly three times more than in Asia, and European companies play a ...
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Learnings from the first FSR Phase II merger decision: The Commission publishes a provisional public version of the commitment decision in e&/PPF (part 2)

Lena Hornkohl, University of Vienna, & Pierfrancesco Mattiolo, University of Antwerp On 24 September 2024, the European Commission (EC) issued the long-awaited first decision (under phase II of the concentration tool) of the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). It took another long wait of seven months, but a provisional public version of the commitment decision in the e&/PPF transaction (Case ...
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Learnings from the first FSR Phase II merger decision: The Commission publishes a provisional public version of the commitment decision in e&/PPF (part 1)

Lena Hornkohl, University of Vienna, & Pierfrancesco Mattiolo, University of Antwerp On 24 September 2024, the European Commission (EC) issued the long-awaited first decision (under phase II of the concentration tool) of the new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). It took another long wait of seven months, but a provisional public version of the commitment decision in the e&/PPF transaction (Case ...
Continue reading

CELIS German Chapter Round Table in Berlin – 27th May 2025

CELIS German Chapter, BLOMSTEIN and Dentons jointly organize an economic policy Round Table on 27th May (17:00-19:00) in Berlin to discuss the impact of trade policy measures on investment decisions. In particular, the debate will focus on how new and complex trade policy measures on both sides of the Atlantic and their embedding in questions of economic security affect investment ...
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Behind the Scenes of the First Czech FDI Screening Prohibition

  Jan Kupčík The Scenes The Czech FDI screening regime has been in effect since May 2021. Until recently, it had been flying pretty much under the radar due to a number of factors, in particular because of its quite narrow scope in terms of mandatory filings. We had dozens of cases, the majority of which were triggered by a ...
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Conference Report: BDI/CELIS German Chapter – Investment Screening Conference

Kilian Wagner From 27th to 28th March, the BDI and CELIS German Chapter organized the second joint conference on investment screening in Berlin. The conference took place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing geopolitical environment since the beginning of Donald Trump's second presidency. Only a few days earlier, the US administration had unexpectedly announced the imposition of tariffs on ...
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The CELIS Blog always welcomes posts from economic security professionals that address current issues in international investment screening and economic security law and practice. Would you like to contribute to the Blog? Please contact our editors: blog@celis.institute

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