Albania Law No. 56/2025 amending Law 7764/1993 — first mandatory FDI screening regime in the Western Balkans

Mechanism

Law No. 56/2025 amends Article 10 of the parent statute Law No. 7764/1993 "On Foreign Investments" — the foundational Albanian FDI law in force since November 1993. The amendment inserts a mandatory screening obligation for any foreign investment "related to or affecting" the following categories, defined by reference to EU Regulation 2019/452:

• Critical public infrastructure (energy, transport, water, sewerage, communications, data processing/storage)
• Critical technologies (AI, robotics, semiconductors, cybersecurity, quantum, nuclear, nano, biotech)
• Dual-use goods (in the sense of Council Regulation (EC) No. 428/2009 successor instruments)
• Supply of critical inputs (including critical raw materials)
• Access to sensitive information or personal data
• Freedom of the media

Investors meeting mandatory notification criteria must submit a detailed application disclosing the investment structure, ultimate beneficial owners, and any sensitive technology or data elements. The primary law does not itself specify thresholds (deal size, ownership share, sector sub-perimeters), processing timelines, institutional architecture, or grounds-for-refusal beyond the sectoral categories — all of these are delegated to a forthcoming Decision of the Council of Ministers (DCM). The implementing DCM was pending publication as of the effective date and represents the key downstream variable determining the regime's operative intensity.

The Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA) is the likely institutional anchor for the operational design, consistent with its existing mandate as the primary FDI policy implementation body.

EU-accession conditionality context

Albania's EU accession negotiation clusters include Chapter 4 (Free Movement of Capital), Chapter 28 (Consumer and Health Protection), and Chapter 31 (Foreign, Security and Defence Policy). The Law 56/2025 FDI screening mechanism operationalises Albania's acquis-alignment milestone within Chapter 4, satisfying an EU pre-accession conditionality requirement for national implementation of the EU FDI Regulation framework (Regulation (EU) 2019/452). This mirrors the pathway taken by other EU-candidate states (Ukraine, Moldova) and recent EU member-state implementations (Croatia Act 136/2025, Romania Law 164/2023, Bulgaria Investment Promotion Act).

Western Balkans regional lattice

Albania is the first Western Balkans state to introduce an investment-screening mechanism aligned with EU Regulation 2019/452. The regional FDI-screening peer-state cluster stands as follows at filing date:

Law 56/2025 establishes the Western Balkans precedential anchor. Once the DCM implementing regulation is issued, it will likely function as the closest comparable statute for subsequent MK/BA/ME/XK FDI-screening laws as their EU accession negotiations progress.

Critical-raw-materials dimension — chromium

Albania is the EU's third-largest chromium producer (after Türkiye and Finland), with production concentrated in the Bulqiza chrome cluster operated by DCH Albchrome (subsidiary of DCH Holding, Ukraine-linked) and the Albanian Copper Industry (Bulqizë, Kukës districts). Chromium figures in EU CRMA Annex II as a critical raw material. The Law 56/2025 screening perimeter — which covers "supply of critical inputs" — captures any inbound foreign investment in DCH Albchrome, Albanian Copper Industry, or adjacent chrome-processing capacity, making it a material instrument for EU CRMA Annex II chromium supply-chain governance.

Affected investment flows

Key foreign investment vectors in Albanian critical sectors that now fall within the screening perimeter:

• Energy: KESH (electricity generation/transmission), OSHEE (electricity distribution), Bankers Petroleum (oil upstream, ~Patos-Marinza oilfield)
• Telecoms/ICT: Albtelecom, Vodafone Albania, One Albania (Telenet parent)
• Infrastructure: Tirana International Airport / TIA (Bechtel-Enka concession), Port of Durrës
• Critical materials: DCH Albchrome (Bulqiza chromite), Albanian Copper Industry (Bulqizë copper-chrome), KMY MEICO (arms/dual-use)

The primary inbound investor nationalities historically exposed to Albanian critical-sector FDI are Italy, Greece, Türkiye, China, UAE, and US-linked entities. These are the primary screening-risk vectors once the DCM thresholds are published.

Downstream watch

• DCM implementing regulation: The operative intensity of the regime is entirely conditioned on the forthcoming Council of Ministers decision. Until the DCM is published and specifies thresholds, timelines, and institutional procedures, the law remains a framework-only instrument. File a IPTM amendment entry when the DCM is issued.
• First screening decision: When the first formal FDI screening determination is made under the DCM framework, it will define how the regime operates in practice, establishing whether it is a notification-only system or a substantive blocking/conditioning regime.
• EU Reform-and-Growth-Facility conditionality: Monitor whether the EU's Western Balkans RGF (Reform-and-Growth-Facility), which is Albania's primary pre-accession fiscal instrument, explicitly conditions disbursements on Law 56/2025 DCM issuance.