Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2672 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Ireland's Screening of Third Country Transactions Act 2023 (Act No. 28 of 2023), signed into law on 31 October 2023 and commenced on 6 January 2025 via S.I. No. 651 of 2024, establishes Ireland's first-ever mandatory inbound FDI screening regime. The Act empowers the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to assess, condition, or prohibit transactions by third-country investors (non-EU/EEA/Switzerland) exceeding a EUR 2 million cumulative threshold in targets operating across critical infrastructure, critical technologies, dual-use items, supply of critical inputs, sensitive personal data, and media freedom. A 90-day standstill period applies during Ministerial determination, with criminal sanctions and transaction-voiding powers available for non-compliance.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly announced (Announcement No. 33 of 2023) export-licensing controls on graphite products, effective 1 December 2023. The regime covers natural flake graphite and products thereof (including spherical graphite and graphite powder used in lithium-ion battery anodes) as well as high-purity, high-hardness, and high-strength synthetic graphite materials. Exporters must obtain dual-use-item licences from MOFCOM citing end-user and end-use; licences are granted at MOFCOM's discretion. The announcement came three days after the 17 October 2023 BIS advanced-chip-controls expansion, continuing the proportional-response pattern established with Ga/Ge in July.

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.

On 16 August 2023 the Swiss Federal Council amended the Ordinance of 4 March 2022 on Measures in Connection with the Situation in Ukraine (SR 946.231.176.72), aligning with the EU's 11th Russia sanctions package. The amendment adds two UAE-headquartered firms to the list of entities barred from exemptions to Switzerland's dual-use export ban on Russia, restricts the sale of securities issued after 6 August 2023 to Russian nationals, residents, entities and businesses regardless of currency, and adds 12 individuals and 87 entities to the asset-freeze list, targeting dual-use/military-tech exporters, FSB-licensed IT firms, propagandists and government officials. It entered into force the same day at 18:00 CEST.

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.

Spain's comprehensive 2023 implementing regulation of Law 19/2003, of 4 July, on the legal regime of capital movements and economic transactions with the exterior. Adopted as Real Decreto 571/2023 of 4 July 2023, published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on 5 July 2023 (BOE-A-2023-15549), and in force from 1 September 2023. The Decree repeals the predecessor Royal Decree 664/1999 of 23 April on foreign investments, updates the declaration regime to reflect twenty years of practice and capital-market innovation, and operationalises the Article 7-bis horizontal FDI-screening mechanism that the 2020 COVID-emergency reforms (RDL 8/2020 and RDL 11/2020) inserted into Law 19/2003. It introduces a binding consultation regime (consulta vinculante), reduces the screening review period to three months, refines the catalogue of sensitive sectors (defence, dual-use, critical technologies, critical infrastructure, critical inputs, media, electoral process, access to sensitive information, and activities affecting public security, health and order), and codifies notification thresholds for non-EU/EFTA investors (>10% control or material influence; minimum transaction values of EUR 5 million / EUR 1 million for certain sectors).

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly announced an export licensing regime covering eight gallium-related items (including gallium metal, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride wafers and ingots) and six germanium- related items (including germanium metal, germanium oxide, germanium tetrachloride). Effective 1 August 2023, exporters must obtain a dual-use-item licence from MOFCOM citing the end-user and end-use, with licences granted at MOFCOM's discretion. The measure was framed as protecting national security and interests, though the timing immediately followed the Dutch ASML DUV controls and US chip-equipment escalations.

On 23 June 2023 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/1214, amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 and comprising the EU's 11th Russia sanctions package. It extends the list of goods generating significant revenue for Russia subject to import bans, adds further export-ban categories (including additional industrial goods, dual-use and advanced-technology items), and introduces a new anti-circumvention tool (Article 12g) allowing the EU to restrict exports of specified sanctioned goods and technology to third countries assessed as high-risk transshipment routes for Russia. Asset-freeze listings under the parallel Council Decision took effect 23 June 2023; the sectoral trade measures took effect 24 June 2023.

Lov 2023-06-20 nr. 77 (Lov om endringer i sikkerhetsloven — eierskapskontroll og lovens virkeområde), adopted by the Storting on 9 June 2023, signed 20 June 2023, in force 1 July 2023, is Norway's first substantive overhaul of Chapter 10 (Eierskapskontroll / ownership control) of the 2018 Security Act (Sikkerhetsloven). The amendment widens the scope of undertakings that can be brought under ownership control beyond entities directly linked to a "grunnleggende nasjonal funksjon" (fundamental national function) to include businesses of vital importance to national-security interests and businesses of significant importance to fundamental national functions, lowers and adds notification thresholds, and equips the King in Council with enhanced powers to block, condition, or unwind qualifying acquisitions. The reform converts a narrow security-classified regime into a broad horizontal FDI-screening architecture for Norway, the host of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and a NATO frontline state.

On 9 June 2023 the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia adopted Zakon o spremembah in dopolnitvah Zakona o spodbujanju investicij — ZSInv-C (Act on Amendments to the Investment Promotion Act), published in Uradni list RS No. 65/23 on 17 June 2023 and entering into force on 1 July 2023. The amendment converts Slovenia's temporary COVID-era inward FDI screening regime (originally introduced under ZIUOPDVE in 2020 and set to expire June 2023) into a permanent, horizontal screening framework administered by the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport (MGTŠ). Non-EU (third-country) investors acquiring ≥10% voting rights or control in Slovenian entities operating in sectors listed under EU Regulation 2019/452 — including critical infrastructure, critical technology and dual-use goods, critical inputs, sensitive data, media, and health/AI/robotics — must submit a mandatory pre-closing notification; the ministry has suspensory power and may block, condition, or unwind transactions on grounds of security or public order. A subsequent 2024 amendment (Uradni list RS No. 31/24) broadened scope by redefining "corporate entity" to capture indirect investments channelled via branches of foreign entities established in other EU member states.

Law no. 164/2023, adopted by the Parliament of Romania on 31 May 2023 and published in Monitorul Oficial Partea I nr. 495 of 7 June 2023, approves and amends Emergency Government Ordinance 46/2022 implementing EU Regulation 2019/452 on screening of foreign direct investments. The law extends Romania's mandatory ex-ante FDI screening to investors established within the European Union (previously only non-EU investments were captured), sets a EUR 2 million de minimis transaction threshold for sensitive-sector deals, formally establishes the Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments (CEISD) chaired by the Prime Minister with multi-ministry composition, and empowers the Government to unwind transactions that breach the regime. Gun-jumping penalties reach up to 10 % of the investor's worldwide turnover. In force 10 June 2023.

On 25 February 2023, one year into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2023/427, the 10th package of sanctions, amending Regulation (EU) 833/2014. It entered into force on publication the following day (26 February 2023). The package bans imports of asphalt and synthetic rubber from Russia (with a temporary transitional import quota for rubber products running to 30 June 2024), expands the export ban on dual-use and advanced-technology goods, suspends further Russian media broadcasting licences in the EU, and designates 87 individuals and 34 entities — including Iranian persons and entities involved in drone manufacture and supply, and 96 entities tied to Russia's defence-industrial base — to the EU asset-freeze/travel-ban list.

The Foreign Investment Reliability Assessment Act (välismaise investori usaldusväärsuse hindamise seadus, VUHS), adopted by the Riigikogu on 25 January 2023 and in force from 1 September 2023, establishes Estonia's first horizontal ex-ante foreign direct-investment screening regime. The Act transposes EU Regulation 2019/452 into Estonian law and designates the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (Tarbijakaitse ja Tehnilise Järelevalve Amet — TTJA) as the screening authority. It covers acquisitions of qualifying holdings or material influence in target undertakings operating in defence, dual-use, vital services, energy and communications infrastructure, transport, financial services, media, critical raw materials extraction and other strategic sectors. TTJA can prohibit, condition or unwind non-compliant transactions and impose administrative non-compliance levies.