| The Belgian Federal Public Service for Economic Affairs published its third annual report (the Report) regarding the screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) by parties based outside the European Union (see, attachments).
The Report covers the period 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026 (the Period under Review) and signals a marked increase in notifications to the Interfederal Screening Committee (ISC) compared to previous years (191 notifications versus 68 in 2023-2024 and 100 in 2024-2025).
During the Period under Review, a second-stage screening procedure was initiated in a small number of cases (4% of the 191 notifications, corresponding to 8 cases).
Of the files that were made subject to close scrutiny, 3 were authorised without conditions and 2 gave rise to mitigating measures.
At the end of the Period under Review, 3 of these files were still pending. The first prohibition of an FDI occurred after the Period under Review in early August 2026 (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 10 August 2026).
By far the most notified foreign investments (41.55%) were made by US-based investors.
Other major investing countries were the United Kingdom (21%), Canada and Switzerland (each 5.48%), and China (3.65%).
The five most targeted sectors or product groups involved sensitive information and personal data (29.05%), energy (18.92%), digital infrastructure and health (each 8.78%), and dual use goods (8.11%).
The Report highlights the increased resources deployed to detect non-notified transactions and reports the issuing of 27 requests for information.
The Report also indicates that the work to bring the Belgian rules in line with Regulation 2026/1386 on the screening of foreign investments in the European Union has already started, specifically through the initiation of the procedure to amend the Cooperation Agreement of 30 November 2022, mainly to align its procedural time limits with the new Regulation. |
