At the end of 2013, the European Union and China announced the start of negotiations on a bilateral investment agreement. It will be the first agreement signed by the European Union as a partner, and not by its member states. However, almost all of the UE member states have already signed this type of agreements with China. This raises the question of the added value of new contracts entered into by the European Union. Will the new agreement be able to attract new investors? The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the agreements concluded by the EU countries have influenced the volume of stock of foreign direct investment. This paper proposes an analysis of BIT and FTA & EIA agreements and then presents the results of an empirical study based on FDI stocks of the European Union countries.

At the end of 2013, the European Union and China announced the start of negotiations on a bilateral investment agreement. It will be the first agreement signed by the European Union as a partner, and not by its member states. However, almost all of the UE member states have already signed this type of agreements with China. This raises the question of the added value of new contracts entered into by the European Union. Will the new agreement be able to attract new investors? The aim of this study is to demonstrate how the agreements concluded by the EU countries have influenced the volume of stock of foreign direct investment. This paper proposes an analysis of BIT and FTA & EIA agreements and then presents the results of an empirical study based on FDI stocks of the European Union countries.