Charlie Weimers, a European Parliament member, on Thursday called on the European Union to invite Taiwanese leaders to visit Europe as part of its efforts to forge closer ties between the two sides.
Weimers, the rapporteur of a draft report titled EU-Taiwan Relations and Cooperation, said in an interview with CNA that the increase in relations between the two sides on “political levels” must take place at a time when China has ramped up its military threats against Taiwan.
As the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament approved the draft report on Wednesday, Weimers, who is from Sweden, said the passage of the first-ever report in the committee was a historic event, signaling the EU was ready to deepen relations with Taiwan.
“I think the European Union should invite Taiwanese leaders to Europe,” Weimers said, adding that he supports high-level official exchanges between the EU and Taiwan, and that the European Parliament should push for political exchanges between the two sides.
The draft report was overwhelmingly approved in the Foreign Affairs Committee by 60 votes in favor, with four votes against and six abstentions. It will now be submitted to a vote in the plenary scheduled for next month.
In the newly adopted report, the Foreign Affairs Committee advocates closer relations and a stronger partnership between the EU and Taiwan “guided by the EU’s One China Policy.”
To step up cooperation, the report stresses the need to urgently begin an “impact assessment, public consultation and scoping exercise” on an EU-Taiwan Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA). It urged the EU to prepare itself for signing such an agreement with Taiwan.
Expressing firm opposition against the draft report, China’s Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee on Thursday urged the EU to stop sending the wrong signals to “Taiwan independence” forces, saying the draft report has violated the country’s “one China principle.”
According to Weimers, he received an email message from China’s embassy in Sweden as early as in May, which criticized the draft report, and repeated Beijing’s argument that Taiwan was China’s internal issue.
“Now legislators throughout Europe as well as countries are under increased pressure from China,” Weimers said. “We must learn from that. We must make value change much more independent from Chinese influences.”
In addition, the newly adopted draft report also called on changing the name of the European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan to “European Union Office in Taiwan” to reflect the broad scope of bilateral ties.
“I strongly support the name change to the European Office in Taiwan,” Weimers said.
He added that the report will not only reflect that the EU has built close economic and trade ties with Taiwan, but also both sides have “very much in common in terms of values, in terms of how we take on the big challenges over times,” citing issues like energy development and academic exchanges.
“And the name change of the office in Taiwan would reflect such a broadening of the scope of relationships between the Europe and Taiwan,” Weimers said.
As for the plans by Taiwan and Lithuania to set up representative offices in each other’s country, Weimers said that would increase pressure from China.
However, he said: “We are very clear that every member state of the European Union has sovereign right to conduct its foreign policy without any malign influences from third countries, including the People’s Republic of China.”
Speaking of the EU-Taiwan BIA, Weimers said he has been frustrated that the EU has not kicked off negotiations with Taiwan for the agreement, but the draft report has strongly signaled that the EU should take action as soon as possible.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel