President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has had to shelve a visit to Europe to address the European Parliament next week, the foreign ministry said yesterday, after China slammed the trip.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (
"The invitation has been submitted to President Chen. But evaluation of situations here and abroad suggested it may not be a proper time for the president to visit Europe at the moment," it said.
China yesterday slammed the European Parliament invitation warning it could torpedo "friendly Sino-European cooperation."
"It is regretful that the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament has decided to invite Chen to attend its meeting and advocate his separatist position," a spokesman for China's National People's Congress was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.
"This decision has violated the EU's political commitment to the one-China principle and ignored the traditional friendly relationship and cooperation between China and EU members."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been working hard over the past month to arrange the unprecedented visit, the a local paper quoted a source as saying.
"Hopefully Chen would travel to Paris on an EVA Airways flight on March 23, and after some non-official activities in Paris, he would take a high-speed train to Brussels," the report said.
But China's pressure was such that Chen might have to drop the visit plan, it said.
The major problem with the visit seemed to revolve around a decision by Belgium's controversial Foreign Affairs Minister Louis Michel not to grant Chen a visa for a visit.
"Belgium has no legal obligation to issue the visa," Didier Seeuws, a spokesman for the Belgian Foreign Ministry said.
A unilateral decision by Belgium to fly in the face of the wishes of the multilateral European Parliament has caused tension between the parliament and its host country.
"We in no way would dispute what Mr Michel has done, but on the other hand there has to be respect for the European Union's own institutions in a wider context, not just bilateral," a senior parliamentary official said.
He compared the European Parliament to the UN in New York, which invites officials regardless of the state of their relations with the US.
"It can invite who it wishes, irrespective of the host country," he said.
Belgian's foreign affairs ministry said Michel -- sometimes called Louis the Lip because of his outspoken views -- believed he was carrying out the will of the EU.
Foreign ministry spokesman Seeuws said the EU's General Affairs Council met in February and decided to reject Taiwanese official visas "for the simple reason that this would contradict the one-China policy".
The European Parliament is the legislative branch of the EU. It meets most of the time at its Brussels headquarters, but also has a headquarters in Strasbourg, France.
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