Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

Sweden amended the Minerals Act (Minerallagen, 1991:45) via Proposition 2023/24:126 and SFS 2024:325, enacted by the Riksdag on 29 May 2024 and effective 1 July 2024, removing the requirement that a Natura 2000 permit must be obtained before a mining exploitation concession (bearbetningskoncession) can be granted. The Natura 2000 assessment is decoupled from the concession track and moved to the Environmental Code's environmental-permit stage, where the full scope of the mining project is known and EU habitat-impact requirements can be completely and accurately met. The reform materially reduces the sequencing bottleneck in Swedish mine permitting, allowing the Bergmästaren (National Mining Inspectorate) to advance exploitation concessions in parallel with ongoing Natura 2000 proceedings rather than requiring prior resolution of Natura 2000 status. Sweden is Europe's largest iron ore producer and hosts the EU's largest known rare earth deposit (LKAB Per Geijer).

Sweden's first horizontal foreign-direct-investment screening regime. Lag (2023:560) om granskning av utländska direktinvesteringar — promulgated (utfärdad) by the Ministry of Justice on 21 September 2023 on the basis of Government Bill 2022/23:116, and entered into force on 1 December 2023 — establishes mandatory ex-ante notification to Inspektionen för strategiska produkter (ISP) for direct or indirect acquisitions of voting rights of ≥10%, 20%, 30%, 50%, 65%, or 90% in Swedish entities conducting "skyddsvärd verksamhet" (protected business activities). The protected-activity perimeter is defined by Förordning (2023:624) and the ISP listing across seven sub-categories: essential services, security-sensitive activities, critical raw materials/metals/ minerals, sensitive location and personal data, military equipment, dual-use goods, and emerging or strategically protected technologies. Both EU and non-EU investors are within scope. Unnotified transactions are void by operation of law and may carry administrative fines of SEK 25,000 to SEK 100 million. From 1 Dec 2023 to 29 Nov 2024 ISP processed 1,206 notifications, opened 24 deeper screenings, approved 11, approved 5 with conditions, and prohibited 1 transaction.

Poland enacted the Act of 16 June 2023 amending the Geological and Mining Law (Dz.U. 2023 poz. 2029), which introduced the foundational "strategic deposit" (złoże strategiczne) concept into Polish law. The amendment empowers the Minister of Climate and Environment to designate, by administrative decision, any deposit of hydrocarbons, hard coal, lignite, metal ores, radioactive ores, native sulphur, rock salt, rare-earth elements, or noble gases as a strategic deposit on grounds of economic significance or national security. A designated strategic-deposit decision may direct the relevant municipality to prohibit permanent surface development or any land use that would exclude future extraction, effectively granting central government override authority over municipal spatial planning (uchwała studium / miejscowy plan zagospodarowania przestrzennego). A 2-year mandatory ex-officio review window was established, requiring the Minister to initiate proceedings for all mineral deposits documented before the amendment's effective date of 28 October 2023.