German Chancellor Angela Merkel's strong push to conclude the EU-China deal in the last days of the year has left a bad aftertaste among a group of EU countries who said they felt ignored.

Officials from Italy, Poland, Belgium and Spain criticized the way Germany pushed through the investment agreement with China in the final days of the German presidency of the Council of the EU, despite their warnings that the timing was tone deaf to slave labor concerns in China and risked alienating incoming U.S. President Joe Biden.

The officials said they felt steamrolled by Merkel and the "German engine" inside the European Commission, in particular Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and trade department director Sabine Weyand, who are both German.