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Global rules on foreign direct investment (FDI)
Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
France | Publication | October 2023
The European Commission (EC) has just published a European Wind Power package including a Wind Power Action Plan, which aims at helping the European wind industry navigate the current challenging context (i.a. covid recovery, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, problems of access to raw materials).
The Action Plan lists the key issues identified by the EC (e.g. rising inflation, unpredictable demand, lengthy and difficult permitting process, unfair competition from foreign operators) and proposes measures, organised around six main areas, like access to finance and fairer competition, to deal with these issues. The EC notably points to its band new powers to review Foreign Subsidies that may distort competition within the European market and calls for pro-active engagement of European operators in this regard.
Although this Action Plan should be welcomed as it aims to protect Europe's green industry and strengthens the initial measures outlined in Fit for 55 package and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), from a French perspective, it questions the adequacy of the measures recently introduced by the legislator (as the recent Law of 10 March 2023 to encourage the acceleration of renewable energy projects) to sufficiently accelerate the development of renewable energy projects in general and wind power projects in particular, and our economic and energy sovereignty.
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Cross-border acquisitions and investments increasingly trigger foreign direct investment (FDI) screening requirements.
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On February 2, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union confirmed that the Committee of Permanent Representatives had signed the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Regulation, referred to as the AI Act. Approval by the EU Parliament followed on 13 March 2024, and the AI Act is likely to appear in the EU’s Official Journal around May 2024. The AI Act aims to establish a stringent legal framework governing the development, marketing, and utilisation of artificial intelligence within the region, thereby marking a significant advancement in the regulation of this burgeoning domain.
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The private credit market and direct lending have grown and diversified immensely in the past decade, offering alternative sources and terms of debt compared to those historically provided by the syndicated leveraged loan and public issuance markets. Consequently, they are fast becoming pivotal components in the capital ecosystem, so much so that the Bank of England consider that the private credit market is currently responsible for approximately $1.8 trillion of debt issuance, which is four times its size in 2015. This growth has been particularly pronounced in Europe and the US but there has also been significant activity in Asia.
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