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The Vifo Act creates a stand-alone, cross-sector national security review layered on top of the EU FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452 framework. Three operating axes:
1. Scope — two tracks. - Vital providers: enumerated critical-infrastructure operators (heat, gas, electricity, drinking water, nuclear, financial-market infrastructure, certain port operators, transport-network operators, telecoms network operators). - Sensitive technology: defined in the delegated Besluit toepassingsbereik sensitieve technologie (Stb. 2023, 172) to include all items on EU Reg 2021/821 Annex I (dual-use), military goods, plus additional national-security technology categories (initially: photolithography, certain quantum/ semiconductor sub-categories).
2. Notification. Mandatory and suspensory: qualifying acquisitions, mergers, internal restructurings, and asset transfers must be notified to the Bureau Toetsing Investeringen (BTI) before closing. Standard review period is 8 weeks (extendable to 14 weeks in a second phase). BTI may impose mitigating conditions, require amendments, or — in the limit — prohibit or unwind a transaction.
3. Retroactive reach. The Act applies to qualifying transactions completed after 8 September 2020 (the date of the legislative-proposal cabinet decision), meaning pre-entry-into-force deals are reviewable. This is structurally unusual — most peer FDI regimes operate prospectively only.
Dutch statutory base under which subsequent sector- specific national-security export-control and investment-screening decisions operate. The 2023 and 2024 ASML DUV export-licensing decisions were issued under the Strategic Goods Decree (a separate but parallel national-security toolkit), but the Wet Vifo is the broader cross-sector FDI screening regime covering everything else (M&A, internal restructurings, minority stakes in critical infrastructure and sensitive technology firms).
Décret 2014-479 / UK NSI Act 2021.** Brings the Netherlands into structural parity with the other Western FDI-screening regimes. Material because the Netherlands hosts ASML (chip-equipment), NXP / ASM International / Besi (semis), Adyen (payments infrastructure), and Rotterdam (Europe's largest cargo port).
combination among Western FDI regimes — pre-closing notification, deal cannot complete pending review, and reviewable back to Sept 2020 — gives BTI strong bargaining leverage on remedies.
5 in IPTM): the Vifo Act is younger, has issued far fewer formal prohibitions to date, and lacks (so far) the high-profile divestiture orders that anchor the CFIUS reputational severity.
acquisition of a Dutch sensitive-technology supplier (ASM International, Besi, Mapper Lithography successor entities) by a non-EU acquirer is now suspensory under Vifo, on top of any export-control implications. The 2023-06-30 and 2024-09-07 ASML DUV actions operate alongside Vifo, not under it — but a hypothetical PRC-linked acquisition of ASML supplier-chain firms would be reviewed under Vifo.
via the EU FDI Cooperation Mechanism (Reg 2019/452), triggering opinions from other Member States and the Commission. The Vifo regime is built to feed into and receive from that mechanism.
expansion.** The 19 Dec 2024 – 31 Jan 2025 Wijziging Besluit toepassingsbereik sensitieve technologie consultation closed; once published in Staatsblad it will widen the "sensitive technology" perimeter and should be filed as an amendment to this action (or as a separate child action depending on legal form).
Act (legislative pipeline).** Separate forthcoming Dutch statute that will sit alongside Vifo in the defence-industrial security toolkit — file when primary source is available.
conditioned in the first two operating years — BTI publishes only aggregate data. Direct comparison with CFIUS / BMWi / ANSF caseloads is hard.
in wetten.overheid.nl BWBR0046747 corresponds to a formal amendment Act or is a technical re-publication — follow up via Staatsblad index.
Regulation revision (filed: 2025-12-11-eu-fdi- screening-regulation-revision-political-agreement) once that becomes a regulation — Vifo will need to be aligned to the new mandatory-screening minimum.