The European Parliament called, on Thursday 21 October, for closer relations between the EU and Taiwan, particularly in the political sphere.
Adopting the report by Charlie Weimers (ECR, Sweden) by 580 votes to 26 with 66 abstentions, MEPs recommend that the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the European Commission work with Member States “to intensify EU-Taiwan political relations and to pursue a comprehensive and enhanced partnership under the guidance of the EU’s One China Policy”.
According to the MEPs, Taiwan is “a key partner and democratic ally in the Indo-Pacific on its own merit as a robust democracy and technologically advanced economy”.
MEPs are calling on the Commission to look into the possibility of a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) with the Taiwanese authorities. In their view, the Commission should “urgently” begin an impact assessment, a public consultation and a scoping study. MEPs on the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA) have often made this request. “Taiwan shares our values: defence of democracy, fight against climate change, high social standards, protection of fundamental freedoms. Strengthening our relations with like-minded partners is no longer just an option”, said Marie-Pierre Vedrenne (Renew Europe, France) during the plenary debate on Tuesday 19 October. The resolution also points out that this country dominates the world’s semiconductor manufacturing markets.
The Parliament advocates, as well, for the intensification of economic, scientific, cultural, political and people-to-people exchanges, meetings and cooperation between the EU and Taiwan.
Dialogue and cooperation with Taiwan across industrial sectors and supply chains and the strengthening of initiatives for the EU to partner with Taiwan in the fields of ICT, biotechnology, health and security are also highlighted.
The European Parliament encourages, as well, the EU and its Member States to deepen their cooperation with Taiwan to combat disinformation from malicious third countries.
In addition, MEPs denounce China’s continued military hostility towards Taiwan and the pressure it exerts on the island and call on the EU to do more to address these tensions.
The Parliament also calls on the Commission and the High Representative to condemn the economic sanctions imposed on Lithuania by the Chinese government because of the establishment of a representative office in Taiwan. According to MEPs, the Commission and the High Representative should take appropriate action and invite the EU Council to do the same.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3DWwzpU (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Léa Marchal)