A delegation of Members of the European Parliament began a three-day visit to China to discuss trade tensions with Beijing. The discussion covered the agreement on hybrid vehicles, as well as the EU's plans to strengthen trade defense tools.
German MEP Egin Eroglu, a member of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade and Chairman of the European Parliament Delegation to China, confirmed his arrival in Beijing on the social network X. Immediately upon arrival, he held individual meetings with representatives of German companies organized by the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
Referring to a previous meeting with German entrepreneurs in May, Eroglu noted that 'much has changed since then.' He emphasized that changes have occurred not only in relations between China and Europe but also in the economic and political context in which their companies operate daily.
The MEP advocated for the need to 'go beyond discussions about China from a distance' and maintain direct contact with those who invest, produce, and conduct business in this Asian country, especially given what he described as a time of 'uncomfortable questions' in the European Union.
In another post, he stated that 'the solution for European industry is not in China, but in the capitals of the 27 Member States and in Brussels,' although he acknowledged the importance of personally familiarizing himself with the Chinese economic reality.
The delegation, led by German social democrat Bernd Lange, Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, plans to visit Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai until Thursday. This is the second visit by this parliamentary body to China since 2018.
EU representatives intend to discuss with their Chinese counterparts the issue of overcapacity, restricted market access, Europe's dependence on critical raw materials, and the growing influx of cheap Chinese products.
This visit took place after Brussels and Beijing reached an agreement to limit the export of hybrid cars from China to the EU. Both sides viewed this as progress, albeit with different interpretations of the scale of the agreement.
According to public sources, the agreement provides for an initial quota of 350,000 vehicles per year, which will be gradually increased. The mission is also linked to the fact that European leaders demanded new trade defense tools in response to the imbalance with China, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the presentation of a tool to reduce strategic dependence by December.
Lange warned that the hybrid car agreement is merely a 'starting point' for trade relations, in which, according to the European Parliament, the EU has a deficit with China of about one billion euros per day.
