On 1 September 2022, the European Commission (“Commission”) published the Second Annual Report on the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) into the European Union (available here), and the accompanying Commission Staff Working Document (available here), pursuant to the annual reporting obligation under Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2019/452 (“FDI Regulation”).

This is the second annual report on FDI screening since the FDI Regulation establishing the EU cooperation mechanism on FDI became fully operational on 11 October 2020. The first annual report, published on 23 November 2021 (available here) showed that Member States and the Commission are eager to review deals with an FDI element and which may have an impact on the national or the EU’s security and public order.