Taking the EU reins, Slovenia plans to press ahead on China investment deal

Name: Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims
Uploaded: 2021-07-01T09:16:17.000Z
Duration: 3 min 36 s
Description: Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims

European Parliament froze consideration of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment after Beijing sanctioned several of its members

The situation makes preparations ‘a bit more difficult’, Slovenian ambassador says, but technical work will continue to ready the deal if it is enacted

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Preparatory work on a China-EU investment deal will continue while Slovenia leads the EU Council, Slovenian ambassador Iztok Jarc says. Photo: Shutterstock

Finbarr Bermingham

Published: 5:16pm, 1 Jul 2021Updated: 9:57pm, 2 Jul 2021

Slovenia will press on with completing the EU’s troubled investment deal with China as it assumes the presidency of the Council of the European Union on Thursday.

The presidency rotates among EU member states and is responsible for the functioning of the council, the EU’s co-legislative body alongside the European Parliament.

The tiny Balkan nation begins its six-month stint at a time of great flux for EU-China relations, and after parliament has frozen consideration of the deal, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) following Beijing’s sanction on some members.

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Beijing hits back at Western sanctions against China’s alleged treatment of Uygur Muslims

Slovenian ambassador to the EU Iztok Jarc said that while the geopolitical situation made things “a bit more difficult”, Slovenia would continue the technical work to ensure that the deal was ready to go should things change.

“It is in everyone’s interest to progress with one of the most important economic partners of the EU. So Slovenia will be probably during our semester working more on the technical level, looking at the agreement, preparing necessary documents in order to prepare everything necessary for the possible conclusion and ratification later in the next phase,” Jarc said.

The agreement was reached in principle in December, and the initial plan was to ratify the CAI during France’s turn at the helm from January 1, 2022. The deal needs approval from both the parliament and the council to take effect.

However, the European Parliament voted in May to pause all discussions about the CAI unless China removes the economic sanctions and travel bans it put on five members of the European Parliament in March after the EU had imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Beijing also sanctioned the parliament’s human rights subcommittee, which has 34 members and 25 substitutes.