The ‘Golden Power’ on Foreign Investments in EU Law in the Light of Covid Crisis

Abstract

The paper focuses on the evolution of the legal regime concerning Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) both in the EU law and in national law, with special regard for Italy, where special powers on FDIs were recently activated to block Chinese investments. The paper, in the first place, sketches a brief overview on the evolution of such special powers in the last two decades within the EU; in the second place, it assesses the current legal regime at EU level in light of the changes brought by the Covid crisis. At the same time, the paper develops a comparative analysis between the European regime on FDIs and the Chinese one, in order to outline the main legal issues connected to the notion of public control over enterprises investing abroad. Foreign Direct Investments, Investment Regulation, Foreign Subsidies, Chinese Investments, Reg. 452/2019, Covid-related Economic Crisis, State Capitalism, EU-China Economic Relations, Industrial Policy, Golden Shares