Foreign Subsidies Guidelines

We welcome the upcoming guidelines, as business are in need of further clarity on these and other key concepts within the FSR, in particular the concept of foreign financial contributions. Please read our thoughts on for instance distortions of competition and the balancing test in the attached document.

Baker McKenzie welcomes the opportunity to share feedback regarding its experience advising clients on the FSR. In line with the task of the Commission to adopt rules which take the "utmost account of the goal of limiting the administrative burden imposed on undertakings", our feedback aims to alleviate the burden on businesses and streamline the review process, ensuring fairness, legal certainty, transparency, and…

The Offshore Wind Foundations Alliance (OWFA) welcomes the opportunity to provide information to the European Commission on the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. This trade defence instrument is critical to ensuring that European industry competes on a level playing field. OWFA welcomes increased scrutiny of critical industries, such as the wind sector. Please find our feedback attached.

We welcome that with the adoption of Guidelines the Commission aims to contribute to fostering predictability and ensuring transparency on certain key concepts in order to make it easier to apply the FSR in practice. In the following we comment on the different technical concepts that the Commission intends to address in their future Guidelines.

Clifford Chance welcomes the opportunity to respond to the call for evidence by the European Commission (EC) regarding the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). Our observations below are based on our experience advising on FSR proceedings and compliance.

Orange welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to develop guidelines on the application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR). This is part of a framework of transparency and predictability and is essential to ensure an effective and proportionate implementation of the Regulation, while addressing the concerns of companies operating in the internal market.

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

The Foreign Subsdies Regulation requires economic entities participating in public contracts with a value of 250 million or more to (a) report foreign financial subsidies from third countries of 4 million or more or (b) to submit a declaration if the subsidies are below this threshold.

Bouygues welcomes the Commission's work to clarify the implementation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Since it came into force, our entities have already been subject on several occasions to the notification exercise when participating in public tenders.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) welcomes the opportunity to submit feedback on the Foreign Subsidies Guidelines. The FSR aims to subject subsidies granted by non-EU countries to the same sort of scrutiny as applies to EU Member State subsidies under EU State aid rules.

Invest Europe would welcome the opportunity to highlight some key points on the operation of the 'investment fund' exemption (which limits the FSR reporting obligations to the funds involved in the transaction).

The obligation to disclose in detail financial contributions in the form of financial services from third countries that exceed EUR 1 million places an extremely disproportionate burden on the companies concerned.

Danish Shipping would like to thank the authorities for the opportunity to provide feedback to this consultation, in relation to the upcoming Commission issuing of guidelines in January 2026. General remarks: Danish Shipping would first and foremost like to emphasize, that we are firm supporters of a European Union which manages to balance the need for support of EU based businesses in their endeavors on…

The Foreign Subsidies Regulation is an essential tool to prevent distortions of competition in the internal market. However, two years after the entry into force, many questions remain open and the bureaucratic burden on companies to process FSR reporting obligations internally is enormous. Any clear guidance on the application of the Regulation is therefore welcome.

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

EuDA welcomed the adoption of the FSR as a first step in correcting a discrimination stemming from the fact that EU State Aid Regulations only apply to Member States and not to all companies working in the EU: only the European companies have to comply to the State Aid rules and not the non-EU ones.

AEGIS Europe welcomes the opportunity to submit its input to the EC on the upcoming Guidelines requested by Jan. 13 2026 as per Art. 46 of the FSR. First of all, AEGIS Europe would like to reaffirm that the FSR represents an important trade autonomous tool to protect the EU Industrys competitiveness and guarantee a level playing field on the Single Market, be it for public procurement or concentrations.

1. In a restricted procedure, the form must be submitted when the application is submitted. We propose to move this to the request at the preliminary selection stage. This would save the parties who wish to apply a lot of administrative burden and is also better for the EU evaluation committee because they only have to review forms from parties that actually proceed to the bidding phase. 2.

The concept of fiscal aid as a foreign financial contribution is not precise. The scope and interpretation of this concept should be clarified, including whether foreign tax exemptions received for projects abroad, outside the EU, are time-barred; There is a potential unclarified problem with declarations/notifications that can be made (as proposed in the text) by the main contractor on behalf of co-contractors…

Filed in French · English published by the European Commission

Over the past decade, the European construction sector has faced increasing competition from third-country bidders, in particular State-Owned Enterprises from China, which have secured major public infrastructure contracts in the European Union by submitting what seem to be abnormally low bids that no private company would be able to put forward.

The scope of the investigation is very broad, there is no clear boundaries. The FSR investigation process is confidential, with no disclosure of the other parties involved in the case and the lengthy investigation time. These unfavourable impacts, as described above, have imposed a significant cost burden on the business, reduced our operational efficiency and clarity of strategy.

Europacable urges the European Commission to develop a more efficient and effective Foreign Subsidies Regulation which ensures a level playing field for European cable manufacturers supplying cable systems made in Europe for Europes energy security, security of supply chain, decarbonisation and digitalisation.

Please find the key points of CPK feedback below, with the full position detailed in the attached file. As a contracting entity, CPK would like to take the opportunity of the ongoing consultations to emphasize the need for specific improvements in the practical implementation of the foreign subsidy assessment process in public procurement. We believe the following additional enhancements should be considered: 1.

Clarification on Foreign Subsidies for Natural Disasters: Article 4(4) of the FSR states that "foreign subsidy may be considered not to distort the internal market to the extent that it is aimed at making good the damage caused by natural disasters or exceptional occurrences." This provision needs further clarification to provide predictability for companies regarding the analysis of competition disposition in the…

Ladies and gentlemen, all the points put for public debate concern substantive parameters and assessment criteria in order to determine whether there is any distortion of competition caused by a subsidy at all, whether that subsidy actually or even potentially affects competition in the internal market, how the Commission organises and justifies its investigations and, finally, how and on the basis of what…

Filed in German · English published by the European Commission

The Dilemma Concerns Since the tax exemption falls within the scope of Article 3(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2560, such as the common practice of VAT exemption on the sale of goods, it appears that it should be considered as a financial contribution (FFC).