EU-China talks on investment and market access has to be conducted with the highest possible level of transparency and subject to parliamentary oversight, the European Parliament said.

In a resolution voted today, the EP’s International Trade Committee said this will be a precondition for the European Parliament's consent to such deals.

This deal, designed to protect investors on both sides, would be the first since the Lisbon Treaty made foreign direct investment an exclusive EU competence. It would replace 26 bilateral investment agreements that EU member states have with China today.

MEPs say that the talks should start only after China has formally agreed to put its market access rules on the negotiating table and that any deal must deliver greater equality between the two sides' investment environments.

The resolution was passed by 25 votes to two with three abstentions.

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