President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of April 26 with a delegation from the European Parliament's Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) at the Presidential Office, where he reiterated his desire for the ROC and the European Union to explore the possibility of closer trade and investment ties to boost Taiwan's international competitiveness.
The president commented that the European Union has investments totaling over US$30 billion in Taiwan, which is the highest of any economic bloc. Bilateral trade between the two sides last year reached US$48.6 billion, up US$11.6 billion from the previous year's US$37 billion and an indication of increasingly close trade and economic ties between Taiwan and the EU, he said. In addition, he pointed out that Taiwan and mainland China last year inked the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement. The EU, meanwhile, has signed a free trade agreement with South Korea, one of Taiwan's major international competitors, but does not have a similar arrangement with Taiwan, so he said he hopes that the two sides can explore the possibility of such an arrangement, which would promote bilateral trade and investment while also boosting Taiwan's international competitiveness.
President Ma noted that the ALDE is the European Parliament's third largest political group, and acts as a key minority caucus in the body. On November 11 last year, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution to grant visa-free courtesies to ROC citizens. In the general chamber, over 90% of all members voted in favor of the resolution, but among ALDE members support was even stronger at 98%, for which the president expressed his special appreciation.
President Ma stressed that both Taiwan and the EU place great emphasis on the core values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law. The European Parliament, he said, is also home to many friends of Taiwan who support Taiwan's participation in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Civil Aviation Organization. The president expressed his hope that even stronger cooperation and interaction can be achieved in the future.
The delegation was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Deputy Foreign Minister Lyushun Shen to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Chih-kung Liu.