Distinctive: EU to target export controls on army use products, outbound expense challenges

BRUSSELS, June 19 (Reuters) – The European Fee strategies to propose actions this 12 months to deal with security risks posed by outbound investments as properly as reinforcing export controls on goods that have equally civilian and navy uses, with an eye on rivals this kind of as China.

In a document entitled “European Financial Stability Tactic”, seen by Reuters forward of its presentation on Tuesday, the Commission sets out its perspective on how the European Union can make its financial state more resilient and identify emerging risks.

It explained these could arrive from exports and investments that permit know-how leak to overseas rivals in a “narrow set of important enabling technologies with military implication”, offering quantum computing, artificial intelligence, 6G, biotechnology and robotics as illustrations.

The European Union govt will present its “conversation” to EU lawmakers and international locations, whose leaders are set to talk about relations with China in Brussels subsequent week.

The document does not name China, but stresses partnering with countries who share EU worries and employs the phrase “de-jeopardizing”, its coverage of lowering economic reliance on China.

The EU govt will want to tread very carefully for the reason that granting of export licences and weighing protection interests are national competences that EU governments will want to retain.

A Dutch prepare that efficiently bars Chinese firms from shopping for the most superior semiconductor-making applications of ASML (ASML.AS) is a case in position

The EU does manage exports of specified “dual-use” goods that can have armed service applications. The Fee programs to deliver a more checklist with EU associates of systems significant to financial stability.

“EU member states are not ready to hand around export controls as a complete but we will possibly see some thing additional along the strains of bigger cooperation,” an EU diplomat claimed.

The Commission will also have an eye on inbound financial commitment and may well suggest a revision of its screening mechanism ahead of the finish of 2023.

EU diplomats say the bloc should identify diligently what threats it needs to restrict and set up that they are unable to be contained by current measures.

The Commission document says it will aim on challenges to offer chains, including power, and to critical infrastructure, these as telecom networks, as effectively as guarding versus economic coercion and leaking out of top-edge technological innovation.

Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop Enhancing by Emma Rumney

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