Italy's participation in China's giant "Silk Road" infrastructure project sparked an outcry in Germany on Sunday, including a call for the European Union to block such deals with a veto.
"The expansion of transport links between Europe and Asia is in itself a good thing -- as long as the autonomy and sovereignty of Europe is not endangered," the EU's budget commissioner, Gunther Oettinger, told the Funke newspaper group.
But the German commissioner said he viewed "with concern that in Italy and other European countries, infrastructure of strategic importance like power networks, rapid rail lines or harbours are no longer in European but in Chinese hands."
Noting that EU member states were sometimes not adequately taking into account national and European interests, Oettinger suggested that "an European veto right, or a requirement of European consent -- exercised by the Commission -- could be worth considering."