Foreign direct investment (“FDI”) within the
European Community (“EU”) contributes to
competitiveness, enhances employment and drives economic growth. It
generates capital, encourages technological innovation and
expertise and, significantly, also opens EU member states to the
export of goods and services. The benefits of FDI can however,
sometimes be neutralised by the risks which it could present to the
security and public order of Members States and therefore,
indirectly, to the EU as a whole.
EU Regulation 2019/452 (“the Regulation”) was
introduced to establish a framework for the screening of foreign
direct investment into the union. The main objective of the
Regulation is to provide legal certainty amongst Member States
which stand to benefit from FDI as to the risks which this may pose
to security and public order, and to ensure that there is EU wide
co-operation in tackling these risks.
