EU FDI: State of the Union (2025)

On October 14, 2025, the European Commission (“Commission”) published its fifth annual report on the screening of foreign direct investments (“FDI”) into the Union (the “Report”). Notable findings:

• FDI inflow. The majority of M&A-driven FDI continued to originate from investors in the U.S. and the UK, landed primarily in Western Europe and targeted 6 sectors – Manufacturing, Information Communication and Technology (“ICT”), Professional, Scientific and Technical activities (“PST”), Finance, Retail, and Accommodation.
• Active FDI regimes. 25 out of 27 EU Member States have an active FDI regime, with Croatia and Cyprus expected to join shortly.
• EU cooperation mechanism. The number of FDI filings reviewed within the mechanism was flat – 477 in 2024 compared to 488 in 2023. These filings were shared by 21 EU Member States, though ~85% originated from only 7 countries – Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Spain.
• Enforcement trends. As in 2023, only 8% of the cases went to Phase II; EC issued an opinion in <2%, and Member States submitted comments in 3% of the matters. Manufacturing (50%) and ICT (19%) were the main sectors subject to a Phase II review.
• Outcomes. The overall outcome trends were almost identical in the past 3 years – 85-86% were cleared unconditionally, 9-10% required remedies, and 5% were prohibited or abandoned.

Read the full publication.