Chinese and European leaders announced on December 30 the completion in principle of negotiations on a comprehensive investment agreement. The announcement, which was made a day before the end of the year, was made thanks to the strong support of the German presidency of the European Council and its chancellor Angela Merkel, according to a variety of sources.
Political news site Politico reported Tuesday that “for critics, the CETA is a rushed agreement and too weak on labor rights. For Merkel, it is a strategic victory, the icing on the cake of Germany’s rotating presidency of the European Council.” EU diplomats and officials say Merkel played a key role in finalizing the long-delayed agreement. Related negotiations between China and Europe have been underway for more than seven years. It is worth noting that the German presidency of the European Council will also end on Thursday the 31st. Despite the announcement by the Chinese and European leaders of a comprehensive investment agreement in principle, it still needs to be legally revised, translated into different languages and formally ratified by the EU-27 governments and the European Parliament, and possibly the parliaments of the member states, a process that will take until at least the beginning of 2022.
Chinese and European leaders meet Wednesday
The European Commission said the comprehensive investment agreement with China is a success story because it not only increases market access for European investors in China and addresses issues such as forced technology transfers, opaque subsidies and state-owned enterprises, but also includes a commitment to “work continuously” toward ratification of the The Chinese side also pledged to make “continuous efforts” to ratify the International Labor Organization’s fundamental conventions on forced labor. But some member states, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, have expressed concern about the EU’s ability to address human rights issues under the agreement, the report said. Other countries, such as Poland, have also questioned why the EU is rushing to reach an agreement with Beijing without waiting for the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, whose transition team has already expressed concerns about this unilateral action by the EU.
Many MEPs have also strongly criticized Germany for pushing through the agreement. Reinhard Bütikofer, chairman of the European Parliament’s delegation to China, said, “The EC is folding on labor rights, a simple commitment to abandon forced labor is not enough and trying to use this as a selling point for success is even more ridiculous.” He wrote via Twitter, “The European Commission tried to ‘put lipstick on a pig’ to gain support for the investment deal with China. But we must, as Deng Xiaoping used to say, ‘seek truth from facts.’ And no one has the right to own the facts, not even the European Commission.”
Theresa Fallon, director of the Brussels-based think tank, the Center for Russian Eurasian Studies, also suggested that “from Beijing’s perspective, the main deliverable is to drive a wedge in the transatlantic relationship, which Brussels seems to have done.” In addition, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vytautas Landsbergis said Tuesday that his country has made representations to the European Commission to include provisions for blocking the Astraviac nuclear power plant in the China-EU comprehensive investment agreement.
EU officials are rejecting criticism that the agreement was rushed without consulting the U.S., stressing that Washington secured its own trade and investment deal under President Trump, while the EU simply wants similar market access conditions “that would allow Brussels and Washington to coordinate their China policies on a similar starting point.” The newspaper quoted an EC official as saying that Brussels and Beijing committed at the highest political level in April 2019 to finalize an investment deal by the end of this year, and that the two sides are sticking to their goals by finalizing the negotiations now after repeatedly failing to make substantial progress in previous years. As the official put it, “much to the chagrin of some of the people who are now criticizing the deal.”
Yet reaching an agreement at the end of the year, an unusual time for such a high-profile deal between Christmas and the New Year, underscores Merkel’s handiwork. The investment agreement is part of Merkel’s strategic outreach to China, which Merkel has made a cornerstone of her German presidency. on Sept. 14, Merkel said, “I am convinced that it is right and important to strive for a good strategic relationship with China.” And on that day, she had planned a huge Europe-China summit in Leipzig, but had to cancel it due to the Communist Party’s viral pandemic and instead held a video conference with Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.
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