Foreign Investment Control Procedures as a Tool for Enforcing EU Strategic Autonomy

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2023 8(2), 513-523 | European Forum Insight of 27 July 2023 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. From Member States’ national security to ‘EU national security’. - III. From protection to ‘offensive defence’ of economic security interests. | (Abstract) The adoption of EU Regulation 2019/452 establishing a framework for the screening of foreign direct investment into the Union has been met with many reservations. While it appeared that it was becoming crucial for the EU to adopt a screening instrument in order to protect essential European interests, the mechanism that came into force in the autumn of 2020 seems too modest, giving the Commission no decisive power. However, thanks to a succession of unprecedented global crises (economic crisis, COVID-19 crisis, Russian aggression against Ukraine) and the emergence of offensive strategies on the part of certain foreign investors, in particular Chinese investors, the European Commission has gradually strengthened the European FDI control mechanism. This mechanism is now focused on the protection of European security, which includes economic security. Moreover, the Commission is clearly seeking to strengthen its own powers in this area. In order for the European FDI screening system to become an instrument for the defence of European strategic autonomy, the next step could be a reform of the system, which would formalize these transformations and would make the Commission the lead authority in the area of FDI control.