The European Parliament will vote on Wednesday on a call for EU member states to increase naval presence in the Taiwan Strait and surrounding region.
The language is in the Parliament’s recommendation on EU-China relations, drafted by Renew MEP Hilde Vautmans and covering a wide range of bilateral issues between the EU and Beijing.
The text calls on the EU to “work with Member States on closer security coordination, including naval presence and joint exercises, to reinforce stability in the region”.
The language won’t pass unopposed. Left MEP Danilo Della Valle has tabled an amendment to remove the passage, meaning the reference to naval presence and exercises will face a split vote during Wednesday’s plenary.
Della Valle told Rapporteur the report risked pushing the EU towards a “militarist drift” in Asia, arguing that China should be treated as an international partner rather than a strategic rival.
Former Italian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Vincenzo Camporini told Rapporteurthat a European naval presence in the region would require a significant logistical effort, questioning whether European countries have the resources to sustain it.
He pointed to the difficulty Italy and other European countries are already facing in sending ships to the Bab el-Mandeb, calling a permanent European naval presence in the Far East “colossal wishful thinking”.
The vote comes as EU-China relations are hardening on the economic front.
France and Germany have urged the Commission to develop a new trade instrument that could allow Brussels to impose measures up to an “immediate cut-off” from the EU internal market in response to severe and systematic distortions. While China is not named in the Franco-German letter, the initiative is widely seen as being aimed primarily at Beijing.
The EPP strongly backs the report and has asked the EU to “show its muscles” in dealing with China. The text is expected to gain support from the Renew and ECR groups.
Socialists are split on the text, with the group holding a last-minute meeting Tuesday night to find common ground. The group now indicates that it is inclined to vote in favour, pushed by the Belgian, French, Dutch, German and Danish delegations. However, the two largest delegations, Italian and Spanish, are leaning towards abstention, as their respective leaderships consider the text too strongly worded, Socialist sources confirmed to Rapporteur.
The parliamentary text also links the proposed naval presence directly to Taiwan, calling for the EU to “work towards deterring China from escalating” and to develop contingency measures and scenario planning for “possible future developments around the island”.
The Taiwan issue has recently caused inter-institutional tensions in Brussels. In September, the European Commission withdrew from a conference organised by the European Parliament in Italy after Taiwan’s Vice Premier Hsiao Bi-khim was announced as a surprise guest, with Beijing reported to have complained to Rome and Brussels.
The final Parliament’s text insists that the EU should continue developing relations with Taiwan while maintaining its longstanding One China policy, and oppose unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
For the Taiwanese authorities, the text, if approved, is a positive sign.
“We greatly welcome the continued attention and support of our like-minded European partners, particularly their clear emphasis on the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the broader Indo-Pacific region,” Taiwanese Ambassador to Brussels Shieh Jhy-wey told Rapporteur.
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