Pregledni rad
FROM INTEGRATION TO GEOPOLITISATION OF THE EUROPEAN INTERNAL MARKET
Ivica Kustura
; Sveučilište Sjever
*
* Dopisni autor.
Sažetak
This paper analyses the recent developments in the European Union’s approach of foreign investments. We examine how the European economic model has progressively shifted from the market integration towards market protection from negative geopolitical influences. The 2008 crisis and global competition have revealed vulnerabilities in the
internal market, forcing the EU to reexamine its traditional market openness to the foreign investments. The 2019 Regulation on screening of foreign direct investments was the first attempt to build a common protection system, but its recommendation only role, in combination with Xella judgement, have opened room for circumvention of the protection system through subsidiary formations in other Member States and multi-layered “Matryoshka” ownership structures.
The new reform which will be implemented this year is aimed at eliminating those loopholes through broadening the very definition of foreign investment, introducing compulsory verification mechanisms in all Member States as well as harmonisation of the supervised sectors. At the same time, we discover the new grey zones: large greenfield
projects, convertible loans and talent-based acquisitions. Such developments show the difficulty for the EU authorities to efficiently monitor the adaptability of the investment strategies to new legal obstacles, making such monitoring, in turn, rapidly obsolete. The
conclusion of this analysis is that the EU tends to abandon its former liberal tradition and, acting as a geopolitical actor, tries to elaborate instead a shield around its internal market.
However, such strategy only partially meets the sophistication tendency of modern foreign investment.
Ključne riječi
Foreign Direct Investment; EU Economic security; Xella case; Matryoshka structures; FDI Screening reform
Hrčak ID:
346792
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.5.2026.
Posjeta: 0 *