On 26th March, the European Commission issued guidelines to ensure an EU-wide approach to foreign investment screening in a time when industrial and corporate assets may be under stress.
The aim is to preserve EU companies and critical assets, notably in areas such as health, medical research, biotechnology and infrastructures that are essential for the bloc's security and public order, without undermining the EU's general openness to foreign investment. The guidelines is a vigilance call upon Member States to use the FDI screening mechanisms in place to the fullest extent or to set up fully fledged screening mechanisms to prevent a sell-off of strategic EU assets to third countries in the current COVID-19 crisis.
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Originally published 07 March 2020
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