The establishment of a National Foreign Investment Control Mechanism for National Security and Public Order is provided by its bill Foreign Ministry filed with the House.
This is the most important innovation of his legislative initiative George Gerapetritis, with the deputy minister Tassos Hatzivasiliou to present the details to the Committee of National Defense and Foreign Affairs.
The purpose of the new framework is to prevent malicious investors from gaining control over business and strategic infrastructure for the country.
The mechanism covers three main categories:
Vital areas such as defense, energy, transport, digital infrastructure, cyber security and artificial intelligence.
Port and critical underwater infrastructure.
Tourist infrastructures in border areas, such as Thrace and the islands of the Northeast Aegean, following a provision with parliamentary concerns about increasing Turkish investment.
The bill provides for the creation of an inter -ministerial committee of foreign investment control (DEEA), consisting of the Secretary General of the relevant Ministries. The Commission proposes, but the final decision is maintained by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who may approve, reject or approve any investment on conditions.
The decision must be issued within 60 days of the recommendation; otherwise the investment is considered approved.
The central element of the initiative is the identification of the final investor in order to avoid concealment through complex corporate schemes. The bill does not exclude investors on the basis of nationality, but aims to transparen the origin of capital.
This national initiative reinforces the existing European Regulation 2019/452, which allows for joint investment supervision at least 9 EU Member States. The European system, however, remains limited to its effectiveness, as the difficulty of activating control in the case of the acquisition of Italian Piaggio by Turkish Baykar.