The Screening of Foreign Investments in EU Law

The screening of foreign investments is a hot topic within EU law and policy at this present time of poly-crisis and global geopolitical insecurity. The EU institutions are pushing very hard for adopting new legislation that will replace the Regulation 2019/452 on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The revised regulation, ‘by stating that the principle that certain foreign investments need to undergo screening, regardless of which Member State is the location of the target’, is aimed at ensuring a ‘more consistent and efficient approach to risks to security and public order flowing from foreign investment into the EU’. Those four little magic words (‘security and public order’) have become the new black in providing a key rhetoric for ensuring the effective screening of foreign investment in the EU. Yet, ‘security and public order’ are complex, contextual and multidimensional concepts. As we shall see, the recent developments in EU foreign investments laws and policies confirm such an assertion. The aim of this article is to understand and clarify how the concepts of ‘security and public order’ operate within the screening of foreign investments and in relation to the protection of the EU internal market laws and policies.