President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of May 6 with a delegation led by European Parliament (EP)-Taiwan Friendship Group Chairman Werner Langen and Honorary Chairman Georg Jarzembowski. In addition to thanking the EP-Taiwan Friendship Group for its longstanding support for the ROC, the president also updated the delegation on interaction and developments between Taiwan and the European Union (EU) in recent years.
In remarks, the president stated that the EP is one of the most important pillars in the relationship between the ROC and the EU, and that the EP-Taiwan Friendship Group was the largest informal group during the EP's seventh term, with over 100 members from different countries and party affiliations. The group has for many years fully supported the ROC and helped promote passage of many ROC-friendly resolutions. The group was instrumental in the EU's move in 2011 to grant visa-free courtesies to ROC nationals, while also repeatedly expressing support in public for Taiwan's participation in international organizations. The president expressed his gratitude for the group's longstanding staunch support and friendship.
President Ma stated that the ROC and European nations share the universal values of democracy, freedom, and human rights, and are developing cooperation in a variety of areas on the basis of those beliefs. In January 2011, the EU instituted visa-free courtesies for ROC nationals traveling to Schengen Agreement signatories, with many other countries subsequently following suit. So our people can now enter 69 European jurisdictions without visas, facilitating interaction between the people of Taiwan and the EU, and sparking a wave of tourism to Europe by ROC nationals. At the same time, this has promoted the ROC's interaction and substantive cooperation with the EU and all the countries of Europe, he said.
The president pointed out that relations between Taiwan and Europe, along with interaction between the private sectors, have continued to develop in recent years. To date, Taiwan has signed double taxation avoidance agreements with 13 European nations and youth working holiday programs with eight European countries. In addition, Taiwan and 11 European countries recognize each other's driving licenses, allowing the exchange of licenses without requiring an exam. Taiwan has also signed aviation agreements with 14 European nations. The president said that all of these developments demonstrate the increasingly close interaction between the ROC and European countries and the broadening level of cooperation.
The president stated that bilateral trade in 2014 was valued at US$50.9 billion, which was an increase of 3.7% from 2013. European countries are also the largest source of foreign investment in Taiwan, having invested an aggregate US$33 billion here. The EP in October 2013, the president said, adopted a resolution on EU-Taiwan trade relations, calling on the EU to strengthen its economic and trade relations with Taiwan and also urging the EU to initiate negotiations with Taiwan on a bilateral investment agreement and economic cooperation agreement as soon as possible. The president hopes that these types of agreements and cooperation will add greater depth to economic and trade relations between Taiwan and the EU.
The president also mentioned that Taiwan in recent years has signed economic and trade or investment cooperation agreements with important trading partners including mainland China, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore. It has also resumed negotiations with the United States under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. These examples are all the result of efforts by the government to promote trade liberalization here.
The president also addressed cross-strait relations, saying that he sought to improve relations with mainland China since he took office in 2008. Progress has been made on many levels, with the two sides having signed 21 agreements and reached consensus on two issues. In addition, the heads of the agencies on either side responsible for cross-strait affairs held discussions three times last year and referred to each other using their official titles, which was unprecedented. The president said that this is the substantive result of pursuing the development of peace under the "1992 Consensus," whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintain its own interpretation of what that means.
The president remarked that mainland Chinese have made about 14 million visits to Taiwan over the past seven years, with 3.94 million of these visits being made last year alone. The number of visits has increased considerably compared with before he took office. Meanwhile, the number of mainland students coming to Taiwan to study has risen from over 800 prior to his taking office to over 32,000 presently. The growth exhibited in this data reflects the strong improvement in cross-strait relations, and countries throughout the world, including the United States, have expressed their support for peaceful interaction between the two sides, he said. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel this past February applauded the progress in cross-strait relations and said it is conducive to the stable development of Taiwan-US relations.
The delegation also included European Parliament members Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar and Jozsef Nagy.