As at Home so in Brussels? Analysing the European Parliament’s China-related Activity

In the last decade, the role of the European Parliament (EP) in EU relations with China has been increasing in both means of action and influence. Parliamentary bodies – Committees, Delegations and even single MEPs – are now involved with the PRC in greater depth and in a larger number of sectors than they used to. Nonetheless, just as the EU struggles to speak with one voice in external relations, ‘EP diplomacy’ is equally affected by competing positions towards China. At a preliminary step of this research, a case study has shown how differences between national delegations can shape discussions of China-related issues as much as differences between parliamentary groups do. In this way, the Parliament’s position towards China is heavily influenced by domestic cleavages and, ultimately, China’s presence within the Member States. This research aims to expand this argument by investigating whether dynamics related to domestic politics are a structural part of the Parliament’s China-related activity. In particular, it focuses on the positions of Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who sit in the EP Delegation for relations with the PRC in order to test the argument already made by Anna Herranz-Suralles (2005), i.e. domestic priorities determine the composition of EP Delegations, as well as new arguments based on the case study. Based on a survey conducted among this group of MEPs, this research preliminarily concludes that the EP’s China-related activity shows elements of Europeanisation, i.e. of uploading of domestic preferences and political conflicts from the Member States and socialization and learning among MEPs. These findings are framed within the larger scope of the European debate on China’s presence and influence in Europe, advancing the idea of a “Europeanis-ing” China policy.