New Foreign Investments Screening Rules In Poland

Introduction

On 22 May 2020 the Government of Poland published a proposal for a new law on the screening of foreign investments in Poland. The new screening tool aims to protect public security, order and health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will introduce a new notification obligation for investments into Polish companies. The screening will be carried out by the Office for Competition and Customer Protection (the "Office"). Once in force, the new law will thus set in place a screening mechanism referred to in EU FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. So far, FDI screening in Poland was limited to a very narrow defined set of selected companies. It is planned that the new screening instrument will be in force for two years.