Abstract
In 2009 the Treaty of Lisbon expanded the competences of the EU creating a Common Investment Policy. China has been dened by the European Commission as a perfect candidate for a future bilateral investment agreement. This research would like to investigate the impact of changing EU-China investment relationship on European rms' behaviour. After an abstract of theoretical contribution on BIT eects, a model of motivations of European inward investments in China will be analysed, based on data from the Italian direct investments in the Guangdong region, examining whether an EU-China agreement could help European investors to tackle their growing needs.