On Tuesday 27 February, the Bulgarian economy minister, Emil Karanikolov, confirmed that the first work at the Council of the EU on the draft Community framework for the screening of foreign direct investments (FDI) of third countries in strategic European sectors, as proposed by the Commission in September 2017 (see EUROPE 11862), would get underway “in the next 10 days”.
“The Bulgarian Presidency is aware of the importance of FDI in the EU and their effects on public security and public order. We will do our best to accompany significant progress in putting together a (Council) mandate with a view to negotiations with the European Parliament. We hope to achieve this in the first half of the year, but work has only just begun at the Council”, Karanikolov explained following the informal meeting of the trade ministers of the EU in Sofia, confirming that the work within the working group would launch within 10 days.
“We welcome FDIs in the EU, but we have to be vigilant in exceptional cases where foreign investors might seek to acquire assets essential for security and public order. And that is why the Commission has proposed a mechanism to improve cooperation of the member states to better and to discuss and to screen incoming FDI. We are looking forward to progressing under the Bulgarian Presidency”, said the Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström.
The proposal is basically for a coordination tool; it will not require the member states to adopt laws on the selection of investments, but the exchange of information is critical, she stressed.
The German Secretary of State for the Economy, Matthias Machnig, said that he hoped to “finalise this proposal latest in 2018”, to allow a deeper screening of FDIs, in order to consider “if we want to allow or not this kind of investment”.
Although negotiations on the draft Community framework for the screening of third-country FDI into the EU are in their early stages of the Council, where the subject is being pushed by Germany, France and Italy, they have already made considerable progress at the Parliament, under the impetus of its rapporteur, Frank Proust (EPP, France) (see EUROPE 11911). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)