French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann is leading the delegation, which includes seven parliamentarians plus six advisers and officials from the parliament’s secretariat, according to the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry. The announcement was purposely withheld until the group’s arrival because of political sensitivities.
The 13-person group is scheduled to meet Premier Su Tseng-chang on Wednesday afternoon before calling on President Tsai Ing-wen the following morning. On Friday, they will visit the island’s legislature and its Speaker, You Si-kun. The three-day trip will also include meetings with local think tanks working on countering disinformation.
The MEPs with Glucksmann are Andrius Kubilius and Petras Auštrevičius of Lithuania, Markéta Gregorová from the Czech Republic, Andreas Schieder of Austria, Georgios Kyrtsos from Greece and Marco Dreosto of Italy.
Preparations for the visit had been kept low-key, despite local reports emerging as early as mid-October. Taiwanese diplomats were unable to confirm the plans as late as Tuesday evening.
The European Parliament announced the itinerary concurrently on Wednesday via its Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation—known as INGE—of which Glucksmann is chair.
“The delegation will discuss Taiwanese experiences in [the] fight against disinformation, attempts at interference in Taiwanese democracy, media, culture and education, as well as Taiwan’s efforts to reinforce its cyber-resilience,” an INGE statement said.
Glucksmann said in the statement: “The experience of Taiwan in addressing repeated and sophisticated attacks through the mobilisation of its whole society, and without restricting its democracy, is unique. In the work of the INGE special committee, we have a lot to learn from the Taiwanese partners.”
The delegation is also set to sit down with Taiwan’s Digital Minister Audrey Tang, a former hacktivist who now leads the island’s public awareness and cyber-literacy campaigns against Beijing-friendly disinformation.
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry has called the group the European Parliament’s first “official” delegation to the island, describing the development as “significant.”
The MEPs’ arrival comes less than two weeks after the parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a landmark first report on EU-Taiwan political relations and cooperation, which calls on the European Commission to deepen ties with the democratic island claimed by China.
Beijing strongly protested the report and, last Thursday, warned against plans for an official visit to Taipei.
“The European Parliament is an official body of the EU. If its committee sends MEPs to visit Taiwan, that would seriously violate the EU’s commitment to the One China policy, damage China’s core interest and undermine the healthy development of China-EU relations,” the Chinese mission in Brussels said in a statement.
The EU has backed the right of member states to strengthen relations with Taipei within its One China framework, under which exchanges and cooperation remain informal, without recognition of Taiwan’s statehood.
China’s mission to the EU said later it would “make further reactions in accordance with the development of the situation.” Neither the mission nor the Chinese Foreign Ministry had responded at the time of publication.
Although EU leaders have been cautious about striking a balance with China—the bloc’s largest trading partner—the parliament has led repeated calls for stronger action on Beijing’s military pressure against Taipei, as well as Chinese policies that researchers say violate human rights in Xinjiang.
When the EU took the rare decision to join the U.S., U.K. and Canada in coordinating sanctions against Chinese officials in March, China countered by sanctioning 10 Europeans. The 10 included five MEPs, Glucksmann among them.
