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ARTICLE · 04 OCTOBER 2024

The Belgian FDI Screening Mechanism Marks Its First Year

Loyens & Loeff
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One year after the introduction of Belgium's foreign direct investment (FDI) screening mechanism, the Interfederal Screening Commission (ISC) has published its inaugural annual report.

BelgiumGovernment, Public Sector
Valentijn De Boe
Valentijn De Boe
Michaël Eeckhout
Michaël Eeckhout
Remy Demoutiez
Remy Demoutiez

One year after the introduction of Belgium's foreign direct investment (FDI) screening mechanism, the Interfederal Screening Commission (ISC) has published its inaugural annual report. Although the report offers insightful statistics on the notifications handled by the ISC, many questions regarding the regime's scope remain unanswered.

Key figures

In its first year, the ISC received 68 FDI notifications, averaging six per month. Of these, only five triggered a second-phase screening. At the time of the report's publication, only one screening process had been fully completed. Additionally, the ISC initiated just one retroactive ("ex officio") review.

The process appears to be running efficiently. In nearly half of the cases, notifications were deemed complete on the day of submission or the following day. This decision marks the start of a 30-day review period, which the ISC mostly adhered to. The only completed second-phase procedure took 52 days in total.

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