Europe urges China to change African energy policy
October 24, 2006Financial Times
By DANIEL DOMBEY, FIDELIUS SCHMID and MARINA ZAPF
China should change the way it secures energy supplies in Africa, a European Union report will say today.
The European Commission paper is intended to put the bloc's relationship with Beijing on a sounder footing at a time when mutual trade and investment have soared and when China and the EU are discussing international diplomatic issues such as Iran's nuclear programme.
But it also focuses on a series of changes the EU wants China to make - such as greater commitment to sustainable development, more democratic reform and a transparent approach to its aid and investment policies, particularly in Africa.
The EU hopes its own trade and investment links with China - and negotiations on a wide-ranging agreement with Beijing - will help convince China to take such steps.
This year, Beijing has sought to prevent the Darfur crisis from jeopardising its own relationship with Sudan, with which it has traded arms and oil. China has also helped finance an airport and railway lines in Angola.
Heidemarie Weiczorek-Zeul, Germany's development minister, recently told journalists that Berlin would "criticise China very clearly" when it took over the G8 and EU presidencies next year. She said China was pressing poor African countries to borrow funds, although their debt had been forgiven by the west, a phenomenon that should be seen in the context of Beijing's hunger for energy resources.
"There will have to be significant changes," she said of China's development policy.
The Commission paper, which will be put to foreign ministers for approval in December, calls for the EU and China to improve "the exchange of information aimed at improving energy security in developing countries, including Africa".
It also calls for a regular exchange between the EU and China on development issues, adding that "there should be transparency on the activity and priorities of both sides".
Commission officials highlight the agreement at a recent EU-China summit to hold regular expert-level meetings on Africa and development. But many EU diplomats complain that China is not observing the same rules as the rest of the world on development and will simply step in when other countries withhold their aid to African states.
The Commission paper says the scope of EU-China trade talks should include issues such as "sustainable trade, China's raw materials and energy policies, decent work and corporate social responsibility."
It notes that the EU's exports to China more than doubled in the five years to 2005, much faster than the rise in the bloc's exports to the rest of the world.
The Commission also calls for the EU to "resolve" the stalled attempt to lift its arms embargo on China. But many member states are likely to oppose such a step.