Key takeaways:

• Coordinated screening of foreign direct investment (“FDI”) designed to protect critical assets and technologies is an increasingly important consideration for investors doing M&A involving Europe.
• Reports of opportunistic investments during the current pandemic have heightened concerns about the need to protect European companies and key sectors. Therefore, the EU Commission has called upon Member States to vigorously enforce (and if necessary adopt) FDI screenings mechanisms to protect strategic European assets.
• This note gives an overview over the most important elements of national FDI screening mechanisms in place in some of the most important European economies, including Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands.