BLOMSTEIN is delighted to welcome two highly experienced senior lawyers: Juliana Wimmer and Uğur Can Hekim will further enhance our international trade and regulatory practice and our advisory strength in complex international regulatory matters.

The EU is facing increasing pressure from global instability and a weakening rules-based order. The “Industrial Accelerator Act” (IAA), for which the Commission recently unveiled its proposal (the Proposal),  is designed to help navigate these challenges. The Proposal sets the target of raising the share of the manufacturing industry in the EU’s gross domestic product to at least 20 % by 2035. This aim shall be achieved mainly by two mechanisms: a framework for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) screening in certain sensitive sectors and “Buy European” requirements for public procurement procedures and subsidies on the other hand. While this briefing focuses on the FDI aspects of the Proposal, its “Buy European” elements are discussed separately.

BLOMSTEIN advised Dragsbæk A/S, a subsidiary of Orkla Food Ingredients and a Danish producer of hybrid dairy products and specialty fats, on merger control and foreign direct investment aspects in connection with its acquisition of Vortella Lebensmittelwerk W. Vortmeyer GmbH.

2026 marks the year of implementation and strategic recalibration for many of the regulatory projects initiated under the previous Commission. Key regulations shift from concept to enforcement and transition to practical compliance obligations for the consumer goods and retail industry: Under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, sustainability and transparency requirements will become binding, and the Empowering Consumers Directive imposes stricter standards on packaging design and environmental claims.

Navigating expanding regulatory frontiers

The deal-making landscape is changing fast and not in ways that make life easier for businesses and their advisors. In merger control, regulators are actively exploring ways to move beyond the traditional revenue thresholds that have long defined their jurisdiction. Across Europe, the concept of call-in regimes and post-closing reviews is gaining traction. This means that even transactions involving targets without significant market presence could, in future, be drawn into review where strategic concerns arise.

In January of this year, the European Commission implemented economic measures after an anti-dumping investigation against fused alumina imported from China through the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/114. This specific anti-dumping procedure includes for the first-time considerations regarding economic security in the anti-dumping investigation and ended up combining anti-dumping duties with tariff rate quotas to balance the diverging interests of producers and users of fused alumina.

On 3 December 2025, the European Commission adopted the RESourceEU Action Plan (COM(2025) 945), a policy package intended accelerate the EU’s Critical Raw Materials (CRM) strategy under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), in response to growing geopolitical and market risks. The Action Plan marks a shift from medium-term framework objectives to the rapid delivery of operational measures, with particular focus on rare earth permanent magnets, battery raw materials and defence-related raw materials.

Several of the measures announced fall squarely within BLOMSTEIN’s areas of expertise, particularly those addressing economic security, supply chain resilience and the use of trade and funding instruments to counter non-market practices.

On 9 January 2026, the European Commission (EC) published Guidelines on the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. The Guidelines provide additional clarity surrounding the application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), particularly with regard to (i) the assessment of distortion, (ii) the balancing test, and (iii) the EC’s powers to “call in” (i.e., request prior notification of) below-threshold M&A transactions or bids in public procurement procedures. This briefing aims to illuminate the new standards introduced by the Guidelines in order to help navigate the still nebulous regulatory landscape under the FSR.

BLOMSTEIN starts the New Year with three celebrations: Elisa Theresa Hauch is promoted to the Antitrust Partnership; Konstantin Kuhle, former Member of the German Bundestag, joins as Special Counsel, and Bruno Galvão is appointed Counsel.

Die Bundesregierung hat am 5. Dezember 2025 ein Gesetz zur Umsetzung der NIS-2-Richtlinie (EU) 2022/2555 verabschiedet. Das Gesetz ist unmittelbar in Kraft getreten und sieht keine Umsetzungsfrist vor. Mit dem „Gesetz zur Umsetzung der NIS-2-Richtlinie und zur Regelung wesentlicher Grundzüge des Informationssicherheitsmanagements in der Bundesverwaltung“ setzt die Bundesregierung vorläufig einen Schlussstrich unter einen langwierigen Prozess zur grundlegenden Überarbeitung des deutschen Cybersicherheitsrechts (zu dem holprig verlaufenen Prozess, siehe unsere Briefings vom 7. Februar 2025 und 1. August 2025). Unternehmen, die in bestimmten Sektoren tätig sind und dabei gesetzlich festgelegte Schwellenwerte mit Blick auf Mitarbeiter, Umsatz und Bilanz überschreiten, fallen künftig unter die neuen Kategorien „wichtige Einrichtungen“ und „besonders wichtige Einrichtungen“. Dazu zählen unter anderem Betreiber kritischer Infrastrukturen, digitale Dienste sowie Hersteller kritischer Produkte. Eine detaillierte Auflistung findet sich in § 28 BSI-Gesetz (BSIG).