The proposed regulation on the screening of foreign direct investments (FDI) is making headway at the Council of the European Union: the Hungarian Presidency aims to submit a compromise to Member States by 5 November, two sources told Agence Europe on Wednesday 9 October.
The article-by-article discussions in the Council’s working group have been completed and the EU27 have set out their demands for this text. For the most part, the aim is to limit the administrative burden on supervisory authorities, both in terms of screening and administrative coordination with other Member States.
The EU Council should therefore review the scope of the text in order to restrict those areas covered by FDI monitoring. According to several European diplomats, most Member States want to move in this direction so that they do not have to control too much foreign investment.
The same applies to obligations to notify the European Commission and other Member States and according to a majority of countries, these should be reduced to the minimum necessary. The European Commission’s proposal needs to be improved on this point in order to streamline procedures, according to two European diplomats.
Finally, several Member States are calling for a transition period of 24 months before the regulation has to be applied in full, rather than the 15 months proposed by the European Commission. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)