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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Country Report Australia 2023

Country Report Australia 2023

CELIS Country Report on Australia, 2023 by Tania Voon. Australia was one of the first countries to introduce a mechanism for the ‘screening’ or approval of inward foreign investment, in the 1970s. The mechanism has evolved over time, most recently since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. It purports to reflect Australia’s welcoming of inward…

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Lessons learned from the “Kleo Connect” Case

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By Janosch Wiesenthal, University of Lüneburg     Due to its geo-economic orientation, both politicians and legal scholars usually perceive investment screening as a field being at the mercy of political interests. The “Kleo Connect” case confirms that this traditional perception still holds true. In addition, it also reveals that investment screening mechanisms might be…

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Huawei Technologies Co. LTD. v. The Kingdom of Sweden – ISDS as a potential remedy against the Huawei ban from the 5G rollout?

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By Kilian Wagner, University of Vienna    Spearheaded by the United States, several states including Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom have imposed restrictions on the Chinese tech-giant Huawei. These measures essentially ban Huawei’s products for the roll-out of the infrastructure for the fifth generation of wireless technology (5G) on national security grounds. The…

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Screening Regime for Foreign Investment to be Introduced in Ireland

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2022

By Conor Hand, Deputy Director Investment Screening Unit at the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (Ireland)    Introduction In an increasingly interconnected world, the national and global security environment is becoming more contested and complex. Reflecting this changing environment, and the increasing diversification of threats, the Irish Government has passed a key piece of…

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Marking a New Investment Era in Sweden: Enter the Swedish FDI Regime

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2022

By Pouya Ghotbi, Wistrand Advokatbyrå    Background In 1916, the Swedish government introduced a piece of legislation restricting the right of foreigners to invest in Sweden. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the legislation was further tightened, making it difficult for foreigners to acquire businesses in Sweden without government scrutiny. The Act was abolished 1991,…

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Taking due process seriously – The Administrative Court of Berlin doubles down on FDI procedural rules

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By Jonas Fechter, University of Münster / CELIS Deputy Assistant Director    I. Introduction Investment screening is infamous for the low number of judicial proceedings that have challenged the legality of the prohibition and mitigation measures imposed by governments. As a result, there is, as yet, no strong body of case law clarifying how investment screening…

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Anti-subsidy investigation in Chinese Electric Vehicles: fairness, global competition and geopolitics 

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2022

By Mark Konstantinidis, King’s College London    Introduction and background  In September 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union address to the European Parliament. President von der Leyen warned that ‘global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars. And their price is kept artificially low by…

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China’s growing assertiveness in the use of economic sanctions: where are we heading?

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2023

By Dr. Iryna Bogdanova, World Trade Institute   China’s growing assertiveness in the use of economic sanctions: where are we heading? The US-China trade war, tightening of US export controls, and economic sanctions against Chinese technology companies instigated major revisions of Chinese laws and regulations that emulate Western tools used to implement economic sanctions. These…

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Building Resilience in Investment Screening and Economic Security: Lessons from India

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2023

By Prof. Dr Bimal N. Patel, Member, National Security Advisory Board, India; Vice-Chancellor, Rashtriya Raksha University; Member, UN International Law Commission (The views are personal) Strategies and balancing of priorities in economic security No nation can proliferate without foreign direct investment. Even so, in certain sectors, such as military or network technologies, FDI may raise national…

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Between Openness and Security: CFIS 23 – Roundtable ‘Looking for a design of Europe’s Screening Mechanism(s)’

CELIS Update on Investment Screening – May 2023

By Leonard von Rummel, BLOMSTEIN and 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…

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