4. Significance and Prospects of China-EU Third-Market Cooperation in CEECs

Third-party market cooperation has gradually become a promising field of cooperation between China and European countries. Such cooperation between China and the more advanced economies in Europe also has great potential. The more economically advanced European countries usually have a profound knowledge of the history, culture and social systems of CEECs, and their businesses have a strong presence there, who have, over the years, developed rich experience in operating in the region and the EU as a whole. Third-party market cooperation is a good way to facilitate the more developed European countries to take part in CEEC projects, reduce the risks of Chinese investment in CEECs and remove suspicions of certain EU members over the transparency, source of funding, investment returns and debt risks of China-invested projects. The prosperity of CEECs will not only help ease the trend of a multi-speed Europe, but also narrow the gap between the eastern and western parts of Europe.

So far, China has signed intergovernmental documents on third-party market cooperation with France, Italy, Austria and the UK, while Germany and Spain have expressed an interest in entering into similar cooperation. For example, the Joint Statement of the fourth round of China-Germany Inter-governmental Consultations stated explicitly that China and Germany support third-party market development and cooperation in the infrastructure, finance and connectivity sectors.^[16] The Spanish government was one of the first to establish a working group on third-party market cooperation with the Chinese government, and so far, the two countries have carried out quite a number of joint energy and infrastructural projects in North Africa and the Middle East.

Third-party market cooperation in CEECs is still at an early stage. The Devnya Cement Plant project, invested by Italcementi and built by CBMI Construction Co., Ltd. of China, was completed in February 2015. This was the largest contracting project undertaken by a Chinese company in Bulgaria. In November 2019, the Čapljina section of the Corridor 5C Motorway project in Bosnia and Herzegovina jointly undertaken by China State Construction and PowerChina started construction. It is financed by the European Investment Bank, with a contractual value of about 100 million euros. This was the first time that Chinese businesses carried out third-party market cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the EU. PowerChina plans to implement the Belgrade Subway project in 2020, with a French engineering company involved. Despite the small number of projects jointly implemented by Chinese and western European companies in CEECs, China has been able to accumulated some experience in third-party market cooperation after a number of exemplary joint projects with France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and Austria in Africa and Latin America. This has laid a solid foundation for similar cooperation in CEECs.