Title research: The EU as a protector in a Geo-economic world - the case of FDI screening.

More information about Wolf Zwartkruis

Over the last years, the international economic order has undergone a major transition. This transition can be described as the shift from a neoliberal to a geoeconomic order. That is, an order where political and economic forces have been separated, to an order where economic and power-politics have become increasingly intertwined.

The emergence of an EU-wide debate about screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) is a part of this development. According to the OECD, FDI is “the category of international investment that reflects the objective of a resident entity in one economy to obtain a lasting interest in an enterprise resident in another economy”. In March 2019, the EU has adopted framework Regulation (EU) 2019/452 to enable Member States to screen FDI.

This research deals with the clash between the EU Internal Market ambition of economic openness and the more recent call for protection against international power play through foreign direct investment. In essence, the research seeks to understand when inward FDI can become problematic for the interests of host Member States. It proceeds to investigate to what extent EU law is able to accommodate such concerns. In order to answer this question, the research relies on both methods from international political economy and law.