China’s commitments to EU’s big-hitters embolden countries in Europe’s ‘16+1’ group, says source
- As group of European nations and China work toward statement at the end of their Croatia summit, leaders of 16 say, ‘You agreed with EU on this, why not us?
Talks between China and European Union leaders have emboldened Central and Eastern Europe nations in the “16+1” group in their negotiations with Beijing, a diplomatic source has said.
“The strong EU-China summit paved the way for the 16+1 negotiations,” the source said, referring to EU leaders’ willingness to walk away from the table if China did not make a stronger commitment to opening its markets.
“Negotiators from EU countries tried to use the EU-China summit text as leverage to say ‘you agreed with EU on this, why not us?’ and China said this was a different platform”.
The source, who spoke as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and leaders of the Central and Eastern European nations were in Dubrovnik for the 16+1 summit, said negotiations on the wording of a final document – which was expected to be released on Friday – were tough.
European negotiators have demanded equal treatment for Chinese and European businesses, the source said. China has said its state subsidies to industry will not be included in the final document because they were a “red line”.