China’s state-owned enterprises ‘prime target’ of new EU competition plan

European Commission vice-president reveals the bloc will set out proposal in June for powers to tackle foreign subsidies, state ownership

It may further complicate negotiations between Brussels and Beijing over an investment agreement

Reading Time:3 minutes

Margrethe Vestager, vice-president of the European Commission, said the EU would set out a plan to protect “fair competition”. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:51pm, 3 Mar 2020Updated: 6:51pm, 3 Mar 2020

China’s state-backed companies will be “the prime target” of an EU proposal to step up scrutiny of their “unfair advantage” over counterparts in Europe, in response to growing concern about Chinese investments in France and Germany.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s chief of competition policy and a vice-president of the European Commission, revealed on Monday that the EU would set out a plan in June to strengthen the bloc’s power over “fair competition”.

According to a European Union source familiar with the proposal, it will “clearly have in mind Chinese state-owned and state-backed enterprises as the prime target, given their increasingly dominant and aggressive role over critical sectors in Europe”.

“The EU wouldn’t single out any country but it doesn’t take more than three seconds to work out which country is the biggest concern when it comes to state-owned companies,” said the source, who requested anonymity.

The proposal could further complicate ongoing negotiations between Europe and China over an investment agreement that the two sides had hoped to conclude by the end of the year.

Europe and China are in negotiations for an investment agreement. Photo: Bloomberg

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x