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Laurie-Anne Grelier Laurie-Anne Grelier assists global companies, especially Asian multinationals, with navigating complex areas of European competition law, including antitrust and cartel investigations, the clearance of mergers, the structuring of distribution, collaborative and other commercial arrangements, and issues related to abuse of dominant position. Ms. Grelier also assists these companies in litigation before the European Courts, as well as with state aid and trade matters.

Latest Post

New Foreign Investment Screening Regulation – Key Takeaways from the Agreed Compromise Text

March 4, 2026

On 10 February 2026, the EU released the agreed compromise text of the new Regulation on the screening of foreign investments in the EU (the “New FIR Regulation”). The three EU institutions (Commission, Parliament and Council) reached the compromise on the text in December 2025 (see our blog) following several months of trilogues (see our blog). The text, while not yet officially published, is expected to remain unchanged. The New FIR Regulation will repeal and replace the current FDI Screening Regulation (EU) 2019/452 (the “2019 FDI Regulation”). The New FIR Regulation further integrates the EU’s investment screening framework into the EU’s economic security strategy.

Against the backdrop of rising geopolitical friction, the New FIR Regulation aims to address the risk that investors structure transactions to get access to the EU market by anchoring their investments in Member States with lighter FIR controls. To do so, the New FIR Regulation establishes a unified minimum screening framework across the Member States (e.g., through mandatory national screening mechanisms, harmonised review timelines, and strengthened cooperation obligations), whilst preserving Member States’ ultimate sovereignty on matters of national security. This will be a major evolution from the 2019 FDI Regulation, which was limited to establishing an information-sharing mechanism while leaving Member States wide discretion as to whether and how to screen foreign investments.

This post discusses the five major areas of change for prospective investors, before offering a few forward-looking considerations.