The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said, on Monday 7 June, that he was “personally convinced” that the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment was a “huge step in the right direction to facilitate investment by European companies”.
The agreement was signed on 30 December (see EUROPE 12628/7), but the European Parliament has warned that it will not examine the agreement while several of its members and European bodies are subject to Chinese sanctions (see EUROPE 12723/16).
Speaking to a group of journalists, Mr Michel explained that the EU wanted to “rebalance” the economic relationship with China. “In the last years, we have decided to facilitate access to our single market” but “there is a lack of reciprocity”, he explained, quoted by AFP.
The President of the European Council warned, however, that the EU “will not paper over our fundamental values, fundamental freedoms and human rights”. Europeans are particularly concerned about the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and human rights defenders in China.
Mr Michel also recalled “the commitments expressed by the Chinese authorities on social rights” provided for in the text. Beijing has committed, as part of the investment agreement, to “continue efforts to ratify” four International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions on trade union rights and forced labour.
The China issue could be raised at the G7 summit on 11-13 June in the UK and then at an EU-US summit on 15 June in Brussels. According to Mr Michel, the European and US positions are close. The US position “is very similar to the European one. Explaining China is a competitor, but it’s also important to cooperate with China when it’s necessary”, he said.
The EU and the US have established a China Dialogue, the first high-level meeting of which was held on 26 May in Brussels (see EUROPE 12727/15). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)