It should explicitly be a “Lex China”: The Federal government wants, in the future, may be more likely to join in when investors are attacking from outside the EU by a German company. This was also met with criticism.
The Federal government has tightened the rules for foreign investors, the shares in German companies want to buy. With a Change of the external economic regulation, the threshold at which the Federal government may consider an acquisition of shares by an Investor will be reduced for sensitive areas, from the current 25 percent to ten percent.
investors from outside the European Union
The regulation applies to investors outside of the European Union – China, in particular, was due to past purchases of shares in the company in focus. The Federal government had been able to prevent with the previous regulation, the entry of a Chinese group in the power network operator 50Hertz. At the end of the state-owned Bank KfW took over a share of 20 percent of 50Hertz, and stabbed the Chinese state-owned company SGCC.
In view of the government with the new regime, especially Chinese companies, even if the Federal economy, emphasized the Ministry explicitly, this is not a “no, Lex China”. The scheme should respect the security interests of Germany. And so she intervenes in the fields of defence or critical infrastructure, espionage, attempts should be blocked. The Federal government wants to have an early say in the law if legitimate security interests of Germany could be affected.
