EU secures initial deal on foreign investment screening
Proposal still needs support of the 28 EU states
Brussels — The EU has agreed on rules for a far-reaching system to co-ordinate scrutiny of foreign investments into Europe, notably from China, to end what a negotiator called “European naivety”. After five months of negotiations, representatives for the European Parliament and the EU’s 28 member states struck the deal on Tuesday at a meeting with the European Commission. Under the plan, developed in the wake of a surge in Chinese investments, the EU executive would investigate foreign investments in critical sectors to protect Europe's strategic interests in some fields of technology. “It will mark the end of European naivety,” Franck Proust, who headed the parliament’s negotiating team, said ahead of the talks. “All the world powers — the US, Japan, China — have a method of screening. Only Europe does not.”
The proposal, demanded by France, Germany and the previous government of Italy, still needs the support of the 28 EU states at a meeting on December 5. Their backing is b...
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