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Latvia screens inbound foreign control over so-called "companies of significance to national security" (nacionālajai drošībai nozīmīgas komercsabiedrības) under the National Security Law rather than via a standalone FDI act — a regime structurally closer to Germany's AWG/AWV than to France's IEF or the Netherlands' Wet Vifo. The 27 March 2024 amendments, in force from 24 April 2024, are the most material post-2017 widening of that perimeter and are Latvia's principal horizontal vehicle for implementing the cooperation duties of EU Regulation 2019/452.
Scope expansion. Prior versions of the law captured only registered commercial companies. The 2024 amendments extend the regime to foundations and associations holding strategic assets, closing a structuring loophole that had allowed sensitive economic activity to sit outside the screening universe. The list of regulated activities is broadened to encompass critical-raw-materials processing, energy security (with explicit anchoring of LNG-terminal acquisitions), electronic-communications operators, and cybersecurity service providers — sector additions that align Latvia with the post-2022 EU "strategic-dependencies" template applied across the Visegrád and Baltic group.
Pre-clearance triggers. Cabinet of Ministers approval is required for changes of control over qualifying entities, for the issuance or acquisition of equity, and — under the amendments — for the receipt of loans exceeding 10 % of assets from foreign nationals or non-resident legal persons. The latter cross-border-financing trigger is carved out for EU, EEA, NATO, and OECD-state lenders, isolating the high-risk cohort. Beneficial-ownership transparency obligations are tightened, requiring disclosure of indirect equity, voting agreements, and significant financing chains.
Remedies. The Cabinet may grant the permit, impose conditions, or prohibit the transaction; the 2024 amendments clarify Cabinet authority to apply remedies retroactively to completed transactions where new information surfaces that would have justified prohibition, broadly parallel to Germany's call-back and the Netherlands' Wet Vifo ex-post review limb.
Why severity = 4. The amendments materially widen the screening perimeter (new subject types, new activities, new cross-border-debt trigger) and introduce a retroactive-remedy clarification — a step beyond mere transposition. Latvia is also a frontline state on Russian / Belarusian influence operations, so the practical bite of the regime is high relative to its small economy. The action is not yet a 5 (no quantitative threshold elimination of the Bulgaria type, no closed-list ban on specific source countries) but materially exceeds a minor housekeeping update.
coverage of the post-2022 EU FDI-screening wave to 17 Member States with documented horizontal instruments.
LT (which operates a sector-specific regime, not yet filed) in hardening review of Russian / Belarusian indirect equity and beneficial-ownership opacity, narrowing structuring options across the Baltic perimeter.
post-2022 reorientation of Baltic gas supply through Klaipėda and the Inčukalns / Latvia regional storage complex; M&A in those assets now defaults into screening.
regimes and creates a notification path for high-leverage SPV acquisitions even where equity thresholds are not met.
initial publication — likumi.lv consolidates without retaining the original 2024 Vēstnesis issue number.
are limited, and there is no public registry of conditional or blocked transactions comparable to the German BMWK annual report.
revision political agreement, once national implementing measures are required.