On 1 July 2026, The Left group in the European Parliament tabled five amendments to the draft report on the changing geopolitical situation in East Asia and the need for closer cooperation with like-minded partners in the region. The amendments, authored by MEPs Jonas Sjöstedt and Hanna Gedin, target the report's treatment of EU free trade agreements with Vietnam and the Philippines, inserting critical language on trade imbalances, human rights, and corporate accountability.
The amendments challenge the report's likely pro-trade orientation by calling for recognition of the EU's growing trade deficit with Vietnam under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Amendment 3 proposes a new recital noting that the EVFTA has led to a highly unbalanced increase in trade, with the EU's deficit nearly doubling from EUR 23.4 billion in 2019 to EUR 42.5 billion in 2024. Three amendments (4, 5, and 7) collectively demand that the report criticise the European Commission for resuming FTA negotiations with the Philippines without a new human rights impact assessment (HRIA), referencing a prior European Ombudsman finding of maladministration. They also call for explicit language stating that human rights in the Philippines have not improved under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., citing increased persecution of human rights defenders, and demand a new HRIA and concrete progress on labour rights and fundamental freedoms in all concluded FTAs and ongoing negotiations.
Amendment 6 proposes an operative paragraph calling for the reversal of the recent weakening of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD, Directive 2024/1760), specifically to strengthen its scope and enforceability regarding the exploitation of migrant workers in Southeast Asian supply chains. This directly challenges the compromise that led to the directive's adoption.
The amendments, still to be examined and voted in committee and later in plenary, represent a coherent critical position from The Left, diverging sharply from the likely centrist-to-conservative thrust of the original report authored by Adam Bielan (ECR). The amendments seek to reframe the report from a security-and-trade partnership document into one that centres human rights, labour standards, and trade fairness as prerequisites for deeper engagement with East Asian partners. The committee vote and subsequent plenary adoption will determine whether these proposals are incorporated into Parliament's final position.