One week until foreign investment control "goes European"

From 11 October 2020, EU Member States will cooperate more intensively in foreign investment control, including a coordinated exchange of information between the EU Commission and EU Member State authorities. 

In Germany, a national contact point has been set up with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy for this purpose and, today, the government adopted a reform proposal to adjust the underlying foreign investment regime accordingly. The proposal will now go through the parliamentary process and likely come into force in the coming weeks. 

A further reform, adjusting the list of sectors which trigger a mandatory and suspensory filing, in particular in the high-tech space, is still looming on the horizon but is not expected to come into force before early next year. Foreign investment remains a highly dynamic landscape and the upcoming coordination amongst EU Member States makes it more important than ever that companies consider a coordinated approach to their foreign investment reviews.