Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The European Commission approved a €4.1 billion Hungarian state aid scheme (SA.120705) under Section 6.1 of the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), authorising grants and tax advantages for strategic investments that add cleantech-manufacturing capacity across Hungary through 31 December 2030. Eligible activities cover net-zero technologies listed in Annex II of the CISAF — batteries, solar PV, wind turbines, electrolysers, heat pumps, and CCUS equipment — plus their main specific components and the production or recovery of related critical raw materials. The scheme is open to companies across the whole territory of Hungary and is the CISAF-era successor to Hungary's EUR 2.36 billion TCTF net-zero scheme (approved 2023-08-30, aid deadline 31 December 2025), which channelled the bulk of Chinese and Korean battery/EV-supply-chain FDI into the Debrecen–Szeged–Göd–Nyíregyháza industrial cluster.

Act L of 2025 (2025. évi L. törvény) is the Hungarian National Assembly statute that elevates a set of war-emergency government decrees — including the foreign-investment screening regime previously embedded in Government Decree 561/2022 — to permanent statutory level. Promulgated in Magyar Közlöny and entered into force on 19 August 2025, the Act preserves Hungary's "Second Regime" of FDI screening operating in parallel with the General Regime (which implements EU Reg 2019/452 since 2019). The Second Regime applies to a broad set of strategic sectors — energy, transport, communications, telecoms, pharmaceuticals, food processing, defence, financial services and healthcare — and requires approval from the Minister of National Economy for qualifying acquisitions (direct or indirect majority, ≥5% interest, ≥3% in listed companies, or ownership/operation of strategic infrastructure) where transaction value reaches HUF 350 million (~EUR 890,000). Notification is due within 10 days of signing; the MoE originally had 30 business days (extendable +15 calendar days). The Act also entrenches the Hungarian state right of first refusal on photovoltaic generation companies (NACE 35.11'08, excluding sub-50 kVA household installations), exercised through MNV Zrt. The Special Regime is structurally distinct from the General Regime and represents Hungary's peer to the German AWG §§55-62, French Décret 2014-479, Dutch Wet Vifo, and Italian Golden Power. Amended by Act XCIII of 2025 (in force 17 December 2025), which extended the MoE screening deadline to 45 business days and excluded bank-financing security arrangements from notification.

The European Commission cleared EUR 264 million (approx. HUF 103 billion) in Hungarian regional investment aid for Hungary Sunwoda Automotive Energy Technology Kft., the local unit of Chinese battery maker Sunwoda Electronic (300207.SZ), to support a EUR 1.43 billion lithium-ion battery-cell plant in Nyíregyháza (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county). Aid takes the form of a direct cash grant plus a corporate development tax allowance, granted under Hungary's national investment-promotion regime (Government Decree 210/2014, as amended, and Government Decree 165/2014 on the development tax incentive). The Commission found the measure necessary, appropriate and proportionate under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU regional-aid rules and raised no objections; the project is expected to create over 2,500 direct and 470 indirect jobs.

Government Decree 163/2025 (VI. 23.) amends the emergency-era Decree 561/2022 (XII. 23.) on economic-protection deviations, making two operative changes to Hungary's FDI screening regime: it extends the review period from 30 to up to 135 working days (45-day base plus three 30-workday extensions) and introduces a state pre-emption right, exercisable within 90 calendar days of a prohibition decision, allowing MNV Zrt. (Hungarian National Asset Management Company) or a designated entity to acquire the blocked target on the same terms as the original parties. The decree applies retroactively to all notification procedures pending at the time of entry into force (24 June 2025) and expands the screening scope from a solar-sector focus to broad strategic sectors. It served as an interim bridge — in force from 24 June to 18 August 2025 — until superseded by the permanent statutory codification in Act L of 2025.

Hungary's Government Decree 81/2025 (IV. 17.), published in Magyar Közlöny 2025/45 and effective 18 April 2025, materially rewrites Government Decree 210/2014 (VIII. 27.) — the statutory framework for Hungary's flagship VIP cash-grant programme awarded through individual government decisions ("Egyedi Kormánydöntés", EKD). The amendment reduces minimum investment thresholds in Southern Hungarian counties and smaller countryside locations, refines the asset-based incentive scheme, abolishes the renewable-energy production-investment subsidy, and introduces a new R&D-centre subsidy for medium and large enterprises (≥50 employees, ≥10 new R&D jobs, mandatory formal cooperation agreement with a Hungarian university). EKD is the vehicle through which CATL Debrecen, BYD Szeged, Samsung SDI, and EVE Power received Hungarian state-aid packages — making this decree the framing instrument for the largest single channel of Chinese EV/battery FDI into the European Union.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10908 "Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States" on 26 March 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of finished passenger vehicles and light trucks effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 April 2025, with the duty extended to key automobile parts (engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, electrical components) effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 May 2025. USMCA-origin automobiles receive an interim deduction equal to the value of US-origin content; USMCA-origin parts that satisfy the agreement's rules of origin are temporarily exempt from the parts duty pending a Commerce-administered process. The proclamation is the first Section 232 instrument applied to finished automobiles in US history and the largest-by-trade-volume Section 232 measure of the second Trump administration, covering roughly USD 460 billion of annual auto and auto-parts imports.

On 24 September 2024 the European Commission issued its first-ever final decision under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2022/2560), conditionally approving (Case FS.100011) the acquisition of PPF Telecom Group B.V. by Emirates Telecommunications Group Company PJSC (e&, majority-owned by the Emirates Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi). The Commission found that e& received prohibited foreign subsidies — principally an unlimited state guarantee via the EIA and preferential financing instruments — that risked post-transaction competitive distortion within the EU's five-country PPF footprint (Czechia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia; 10+ million subscribers). Conditions imposed require e& to remove the unlimited state guarantee, prohibit financing PPF's EU operations from EIA or e& group treasury, and mandate notification of future EU acquisitions above the FSR thresholds. The non-confidential version of the decision was published 4 April 2025.

The European Commission approved a Hungarian horizontal state-aid framework scheme of approximately EUR 2.36 billion (HUF 920 billion equivalent) under Section 2.8 of the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF, adopted 9 March 2023) to support accelerated investments in strategic net-zero sectors: batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, heat pumps, electrolysers, CCS equipment, key components for each, and the production or recovery of related critical raw materials. Aid is provided in the form of direct grants, tax advantages, and refundable advances; all aid must be granted before 31 December 2025. The scheme is the principal state-aid architecture through which Hungary has channelled Chinese and Korean battery/EV-supply- chain FDI into its emerging Debrecen–Szeged–Göd-Nyíregyháza industrial cluster, and is the parent umbrella under which individual large-scale aid decisions for CATL Debrecen, BYD Szeged, EVE Power Debrecen, Samsung SDI Göd, Sunwoda Nyíregyháza, and EcoPro BM have been or will be assessed.

Bureau of Industry and Security final rule (88 FR 46071, Doc 2023-15343) adding four entities to the Entity List effective July 18, 2023. Intellexa S.A. (Greece) and Intellexa Limited (Ireland) — the corporate architecture behind the "Predator" commercial spyware platform — and Cytrox Holdings Zrt. (Hungary) and Cytrox AD (North Macedonia) — the developer of the underlying spyware technology — were listed for "trafficking in cyber exploits used to gain access to information systems, thereby threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide." All items subject to the EAR require a license with a presumption-of-denial review policy for all four entities, effectively cutting off access to US-origin hardware, software, and technology.