Diplomatic relations between Europe and China have deteriorated, and EU officials say the EU executive committee’s bid to ratify the EU-China investment agreement has been “suspended.
The European Union (EU) sanctioned Chinese officials and institutions for persecuting Uighur human rights in Xinjiang in March, and the Chinese Communist Party then retaliated by imposing sanctions on European politicians, academics and institutions, worsening diplomatic relations between the two sides.
Valdis Dombrovskis, vice president of the EU executive committee and trade commissioner, said in an interview with AFP that “we have now in a sense suspended the political engagement of the EU executive committee.”
He said it is obvious that the current environment, with the EU offering sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Communist Party imposing counter-sanctions, including sanctions against MEPs, is not conducive to ratifying the agreement.
He noted that the ratification of the agreement will depend on how the relationship between the EU and the CCP will evolve.
At the end of last year, the EU and China signed a comprehensive investment agreement with Germany, but the agreement has yet to be ratified by the European Parliament before it can enter into force. Dombrovskis is responsible for promoting the ratification process of the agreement, but it has already been resisted by some key MEPs.
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