Navigating the EU Foreign Subsidies Regime - Latest Developments & Key Considerations

Introduction

Since fully coming into force in October 2023, the European Commission has been readily enforcing the EU Financial Subsidies Regime (‘FSR’) to review M&A and public procurement. However, while the scope of the regime is wide, and to a certain extent still vague, the European Commission has showed a quite cautious attitude in its substantive enforcement, with only one extensive phase 2 investigation in the M&A context and few in-depth investigations in the public procurement space.

This webinar will focus on the Commission’s recent uses of the FSR, and what this could mean for deal timelines and structures moving forward, exploring also the political implications of the enforcement of this new piece of legislation. A highlight of recent developing soft law, in particular the yet to be released guidelines on the FSR’s distortion and balancing tests will also be discussed. The webinar will include practical advice for practitioners navigating the EU’s FSR given recent developments and will provide answers to complex questions.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• Introduction on the EU FSR framework, including the regime’s purpose, the mandatory notification regimes for concentrations and public procurement tenders, ex officio investigations and the assessment of distortive effect
• Focus on the Commission’s recent enforcement of the FSR and related investigations, and insights into the impact of this on future deal-making (e.g. the e&/PFF case, the Bulgarian ‘push-pull’ trains public procurement investigation, the Romanian solar energy park public procurement investigation, the two ex-officio investigations relating to the EU wind power sector and Nuctech, the Commission’s first use of the Article 29(4) FSR power in relation to public procurement projects in Poland and France)
• Analysis of the political impact of the Commission’s recent FSR activities
• Overview of the proposed guidelines on the FSR’s distortion and balancing tests including what the Commission may consider in assessing whether a particular subsidy distorts the EU internal market

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Monday 22nd September 2025

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