Meeting with Thomas Langelaar, Trade and Investment Counsellor, Delegation of the European Union to China

2019-05-23 | Beijing

Meeting with Thomas Langelaar, Trade and Investment Counsellor, Delegation of the European Union to China

On 23rd May, Jet Chang, chair of the Environment Working Group (EWG) led a delegation from the European Chamber to meet with Thomas Langelaar, counsellor, Trade and Investment, Delegation of the European Union to China.

Mr. Langelaar welcomed such exchanges with WGs from the Chamber, and recognized the importance of environment as a focusing issue worldwide. Mr. Chang thanked Mr. Langelaar for the opportunity, and introduced the attendees to the counsellor.

Mr Chang provided Mr Langelaar with details on the meeting the EWG had on 22nd May with Ren Shuben, director general (DG), Resource Conservation and Environment Protection Department, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The EWG delegation discussed with Mr Langelaar their experiences and problems as foreign businesses in the environment industry in China. Each member also shared ideas on how EU-China cooperation could help tackle the existing issues:

·         Increase transparency and specification of environmental regulations, clarify power and responsibilities of government authorities to make the market environment more welcoming and less risky for foreign businesses, especially in Public-Private Partnership;

·         Further lower market access barriers in the water management market, which has been largely dominated by the state; foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) can only perform as operators, in partnership with domestic companies, cannot be majority shareholders.

·         Increase responsiveness and transparency of public consultation process, establish regular communication with relevant stakeholders to follow up on comments.

·         Set up clear target and plans for future environmental goals and circular economy to improve the predictability of regulations and bans, as vagueness and volatility of government actions hampers businesses’ investment decisions greatly.

·         Increase communication between the EU and Chinese authorities, introduce European experiences and practices to Chinese policy makers through a potential new environmental platform based on the current China-Europe Water and Energy Platform.

Mr. Langelaar greatly appreciated the establishment of WGs, he noted that this is not only a great form to bring together the interests of all EU members to avoid discrimination, but also a stronger voice to be heard by Chinese policy makers. Besides joining the Chambers meeting, Mr. Langelaar also inquired for market size information and key issues foreign businesses are facing in the China’s environment industry. The Chamber’s Government Relations Manager Michelle Zhang also discussed with the counsellor on further cooperation between the Chamber and the EU Delegation, e.g. if possible, Chamber EWG would like to be a part of the ministerial-level dialogue meetings by sending our Chairman or senior representatives, to make contribution from industrial perspectives. Mr. Langelaar proposed that the Delegation and the Chamber can meet on regular basis and he would like to attend the next EWG meeting if he is available.

Also touched at the meeting was that, at the beginning of June, an EU official with expertise in EU’s new regulations on waste will be visiting Beijing, it would be a great pleasure for the EWG to meet him and make exchanges.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Jet Chang presented the newly published Business Confidence Survey 2019 to the Counsellor.