France extends foreign-investment screening (IEF) to critical raw materials extraction, transformation and recycling — Décret n° 2023-1293

Mechanism

Under the French IEF regime, an investment by a non-French investor in an entity active in a listed sensitive sector requires prior authorisation from the Minister of the Economy. The 28 December 2023 texts widen the list: DG Trésor states that "les activités d'extraction, de transformation et de recyclage de matières premières critiques" are now eligible for control as essential to national interests, and the Arrêté adds infrastructure, goods and services essential to those activities. The 10% voting-rights threshold control, introduced as a temporary crisis measure, is made permanent, and takeovers of branches of foreign entities engaging in a sensitive activity are caught to prevent circumvention.

Scope note

The primary texts reviewed do not name specific materials, so target_materials is left empty; "critical raw materials" is used in the regime's own terms. No count of transactions or investment value is stated in the sources, and none is claimed. Register-state only.

Downstream implications

• Foreign acquirers of French miners, refiners and recyclers of critical raw materials now

need prior authorisation from 1 January 2024.

• Complements the EU-level screening framework and the national critical-metals fund

filed in the register.

Open questions

• Which transactions have been reviewed under the new critical-raw-materials limb.