December 13, 2023
No. 440
The European Parliament unanimously passed a resolution on EU-Taiwan trade and investment relations during a plenary session on December 13. The resolution emphasizes that Taiwan is crucial for the EU and global supply chains and sees opportunities for cooperation against economic coercion and for economic security. It calls on the EU to sign formal bilateral economic and trade agreements with Taiwan, such as a resilient supply chain agreement and a bilateral investment agreement; and calls for enhanced cooperation on digital trade and cyberresilience. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) highly welcomes and sincerely appreciates the European Parliament’s firm support for the deepening of Taiwan-EU bilateral economic, trade, and investment relations.
Focusing on the benefits of stronger Taiwan-EU relations, the resolution recognizes Taiwan as a reliable and like-minded partner and the strategic importance of the EU’s trade and economic relations with Taiwan, in line with the EU’s economic security strategy. It also urges the European Commission and the European External Action Service to increase their support in order to allow Taiwan to be present in multilateral and international forums. Furthermore, the resolution especially acknowledges that following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Taiwan has backed the EU’s sanctions against Russia and lent staunch support to Ukraine.
This is the third European Parliament resolution to focus on Taiwan since the body passed a report on EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation in October 2021. Following the visit to Taiwan by the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade in December 2022, the resolution once again represents the committee’s concrete action to support the deepening of Taiwan-EU cooperation on such issues as economics, trade, investment, and supply chains. (E)