CELIS-Blog
Who Manufactured the EU’s Trade Bazooka? ACI, ECFR, and the Geoeconomic Policy-Making
Author: Jaša Veselinovič (Research Associate, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Introduction In response to Donald Trump’s intensifying desire to ‘acquire’ Greenland, the EU adopted an open-carry attitude to its “trade bazooka”. The Anti-Coercion Instrument (ACI) has been brandished more openly by European political elites with encouragement from across the Atlantic by the likes of Paul Krugman and…
Read More ...France’s FDI Regime: Recent Decisions Signal More Oversight
Author: Wesley Lainé (Associate, Skadden) Introduction France is a top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe, attracting significant inflows through cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). However, like most open economies, France has sought to balance its commitment to open markets with the need to protect its national interests. Achieving this balance—which has evolved…
Read More ...Authorities at the helm – Developing investment screening capabilities in Belgium – An interview with Anne Bonet
Part 1 in the CELIS blogseries ‘Authorities at the helm’ Author: Floor Doppen Introduction In the European Union (‘EU’), investment screening regulation has proliferated in the past five years. Many member states developed new administrative capabilities, struggled to develop the governance capabilities to screen investments efficiently, were tasked with explaining to colleagues, firms, lawyers and…
Read More ...CFIUS’s Known Investor Program: A New Chapter in Foreign Investment Screening
Author: Anonymous Introduction / Context The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) previously announced a “Known Investor Program” to streamline the U.S. foreign investment review process. Under the program, certain repeat, low-risk foreign investors may provide detailed information to CFIUS in advance of any specific deal. By collecting and assessing detailed information…
Read More ...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 ticking for the early-2028 implementation deadline of the Foreign Investment Screening Regulation (the ‘Regulation’) with Germany already announcing that it will consolidate its screening rules…
Read More ...Balancing Economic Security and Investment Protection – The Case of Nexperia and the China–Netherlands BIT
Authors: Steffen Hindelang (CELIS Institute), Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) I. Introduction While the European Union and its Member States are still assessing whether to introduce a mechanism to review outbound investment for economic security reasons, the Netherlands appears to be ahead of the policy curve. On 30 September 2025, following reports…
Read More ...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 EU, in its Turnberry Deal with the United States, had promised to “strengthen economic security alignment” between the two entities. The deal itself ended the…
Read More ...Investment Screening and the Nexperia Crisis: Would It Have Made a Difference?
Author: Frans-Paul van der Putten (Founder, ChinaGeopolitics) Introduction Five months have passed since the interventions by the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs and the Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal that took away control of Dutch chipmaker Nexperia from its Chinese parent company Wingtech Technologies. Looking back at what happened, now that the…
Read More ...Ukraine’s Interagency FDI Commission: Early Powers in a Yet-to-Be-Defined FDI Screening Regime
Igor Svechkar (Partner, Asters), Sergiy Glushchenko (Counsel, Asters), and Anastasiia Panchak (Senior Associate, Asters; CELIS Country Reporter for Ukraine) Introduction On 28 January 2026, the Ukrainian Government (‘the Government’) adopted Resolution No. 97 (‘the Resolution’), establishing an Interagency Foreign Direct Investment Screening Commission (‘the Commission’). This step marks a further move toward the development of…
Read More ...FDI Screening in Ukraine: Balancing Security, Predictability, and Investment
Reflections from a CELIS and CIPE event in Washington, DC Anton Arkhypov (Counsel, AVELLUM) Introduction Ukraine’s reconstruction will depend heavily on foreign investment. At the same time, the country faces an unprecedented challenge: how to attract capital, technology, and partnerships without compromising national security in an environment shaped by war, geopolitical fragmentation, and global supply-chain realignment.…
Read More ...CELIS Update on Investment Screening and Economic Security – January 2026
By Helene Schramm with the help of intern Maria-Arancha Simiuc INVESTMENT SCREENING MECHANISMS United States – Washington Targets Sensitive Tech Investment Abroad Under New COINS Act On 18 December 2025, the Comprehensive Outbound Investment National Security (COINS) Act 2025 was signed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The Act requires enforcement by the Department…
Read More ...Economic Security and the Financial Sector: Italian FDI Legislation Reformed to Cope with the EU Commission Infringement Procedure
By Andrea Gemmi and Linda Lorenzon Introduction The opening of infringement procedure INFR(2025)2152 concerning Italy’s FDI screening legislation (so-called “golden power” legislation) —following its application to the UniCredit/Banco BPM transaction—has brought to the surface unresolved tensions between national FDI controls and EU competences in banking supervision, prudential regulation, and free movement of capital. The European Commission’s…
Read More ...The Guidelines on the Foreign Subsidies Regulation: condensing the Commission’s first experience
Pierfrancesco Mattiolo (PhD Candidate, University of Antwerp) and Jan Blockx (Assistant Professor, University of Antwerp) On 9 January 2026, the Commission adopted its Guidelines on the application of certain provisions of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). This publication follows the publication of the Draft Guidelines in July 2025 and increasing enforcement action at the end…
Read More ...Can Transatlantic Dialogue Smooth the Path for Investment in Western Defense?
Introduction Recent shifts in global security have thrust foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defense sector back into the spotlight. A closed-door CELIS Salon, convened policymakers, practitioners, and industry voices in Washington DC on the 13th of January to take stock of how transatlantic investors can navigate the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) while still bolstering European defense capabilities. Although the conversation…
Read More ...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 of the CELIS-L&G special series. All articles in Law & Geoeconomics are available free of charge via Brill using the access token LGEO4U until 31 December 2026. More details…
Read More ...Looking back at 2025 and raising our glass to 2026!
We hope that 2026 has gotten off to a good start for you. We wish it to be a year filled with happiness, success, and, most importantly, peace! While we are looking towards the future, we first take a moment to look back at the past year. 2025 was a tumultuous one, characterised by trade…
Read More ...Taking Certainty Seriously: the Italian Council of State Overturns the Practice of the National FDI Authority
Author: Andrea Gemmi (BonelliErede, Associate; University of Padova, PhD Candidate) Introduction The recent ruling of the Italian Council of State on the Cedacri case marks a turning point in the interpretation of the national FDI screening regime. This judgment reinforces the principle of legal certainty, challenging years of expansive administrative practice aimed at maximizing preventive…
Read More ...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 December 2026. More details are available at the L&G page here. Introduction: From Liberalisation to Interventionism Over the past decade, regulatory practices in Western economies have…
Read More ...CELIS Update on Investment Screening and Economic Security – December 2025
By Helene Schramm with the help of intern Maria-Arancha Simiuc INVESTMENT SCREENING MECHANISMS Switzerland – Swiss Parliament adopts Investment Screening Act On 2 December 2025, the Swiss parliament approved an Investment Screening Act. The regime has a highly limited scope and applies only to investments made by foreign states. The law is subject to a…
Read More ...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 Brussels on December 11th as the European Commission, Council and Parliament reached agreement on the Foreign Investment Screening Regulation (the ‘Regulation’). Over the past few…
Read More ...Building Trust, Not Barriers: Ukraine’s Path to Effective FDI Screening
By Mykyta Nota (AVELLUM, Partner), Anton Arkhypov (AVELLUM, Counsel), Mariia Bykova (AVELLUM, Associate) To most foreigners, Ukraine is the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ – a land of rich soil where nearly half of all exports come from agriculture. The full-scale Russian invasion in 2022 turned that image on its head, underscoring the country’s engineering strength, industrial…
Read More ...The “Shifting Balance” of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). Some Preliminary Considerations on the ADNOC/Covestro Case and the Regulation’s Balancing Test
By Lena Hornkohl (University of Vienna) and Pierfrancesco Mattiolo (University of Antwerp) The central purpose of the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is clear: to tackle distortions in the internal market caused by subsidies granted by non-EU states. But what if these subsidy-fuelled activities not only distort but also create positive effects? How should they…
Read More ...Is the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation Delivering on Its Promise After Two Years of Implementation?
By Marina Maccagno (Senior Manager EU & Competition Law, PwC Legal Italy) The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) has now been in force for over two years, and its implementation has proven to be quite challenging. As the dust settles, the question remains: is the FSR truly delivering on its promise of a level playing…
Read More ...New guidance on the interpretation of Austrian investment control rules
By Johannes Barbist, Binder Grösswang, Regina Kröll, Binder Grösswang and Armin Nimmrichter, Binder Grösswang More than five years after the Federal Act on the Control of Foreign Direct Investments (Investment Control Act – ICA) came into force, the Federal Ministry for Economy, Energy and Tourism (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft, Energie und Tourismus – “BMWET”) has published new information on its website (only available in German) on the interpretation of the ICA. While the FAQs previously provided by the BMWET were very concise and focused…
Read More ...FDI Screening in Sweden: Broad Ambitions, Burdensome Reality
by Helene Andersson (Advokatfirman Delphi) and Elisabeth Eklund (Advokatfirman Delphi) On 1 December 2023, Sweden introduced a new foreign direct investment (FDI) screening regime, a landmark reform aligning Sweden with the broader EU framework for investment control. The system empowers the Swedish screening authority to block or impose conditions on acquisitions by non-EU actors…
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