February 8, 2018
No. 16
MEP Emma McClarkin, the European Conservatives and Reformists Group’s Coordinator on INTA (Committee on International Trade), will visit Taiwan from February 8 to 11, 2018, at the invitation of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The trip will give her a better understanding of Taiwan’s economic and political developments, as well as its ties with the European Union and cross-strait relations.
MEP McClarkin will call at such government agencies as the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations. In addition to attending a luncheon hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she will visit sites of cultural and economic interest, including the National Palace Museum and Taipei 101.
The European Parliament comprises 751 MEPs, representing the more than 500 million people of the 28 European Union member countries. In recent years, it has passed multiple resolutions in favor of Taiwan. In the December 2017 resolution on the Annual Report on the implementation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EP reiterated support for Taiwan’s participation in international organizations. It also emphasized that maintaining peace, stability, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific is in the interest of the European Union and its member states, while calling on all parties concerned to resolve differences peacefully and not seek to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas and the Taiwan Strait unilaterally. In 2016, it adopted a resolution based on a European Commission’s trade for all- towards a more responsible trade and investment policy, calling for the prompt launch of negotiations with Taiwan on a bilateral investment agreement.(E)