EU's trade initiative could boomerang

Every year, the Paris-based OECD publishes its Foreign Direct Investment Regulatory Restrictiveness Index, which measures statutory barriers against foreign investment in over 60 countries and regions. Every year, the European Union comes out as the world's most open economy.

Is this going to change? In his State of the Union address last week, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker seemed to herald a change in the EU's trade policy when he said "we are not na?ve free traders" and "today we are proposing a new EU framework for investment screening. If a foreign, state-owned, company wants to purchase a European harbor, part of our energy infrastructure or a defense technology firm, this should only happen in transparency, with scrutiny and debate".

In parallel, the commission submitted a draft law to the EU legislators that would set up a framework for screening foreign direct investments into the EU.