In early November, legal and policy analyses of the Commission’s Fifth Annual Report on the Screening of Foreign Direct Investments into the Union underlined a continued expansion of FDI screening across Europe. By October 2025, 25 out of 27 Member States had screening regimes in place, with more notifications and a broader focus on sectors such as energy, transport and digital infrastructure.
Commentaries published on 6 November stress that critical infrastructure, including ports and logistics corridors, features increasingly in screening decisions, with more transactions either being conditional or prohibited on security grounds.
Private investments in EU ports can be directly affected by this shift. On the one hand, strong screening can protect strategic assets and avoid undue dependence on high-risk investors. On the other, uncertain timelines, divergent national practices and opaque criteria risk delaying or deterring needed investment in terminals, energy hubs and port digitalisation. For the port sector, the message is clear: the forthcoming revision of the FDI framework must balance economic security with the ability of ports to attract stable, long-term capital.
