Geneva, 30/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - With one week to go until the international conference in Copenhagen (7-18 December), the climate dossier dominated discussions at the 12th EU-China summit on 30 November in Nanjing. At this summit, the Swedish prime minister and president of the European Council, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, stepped up the pressure on their Chinese host, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, for his country to significantly assume part of the post-Kyoto agreement burden on greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Addressing the press at the end of the meetings, Mr Reinfeldt insisted that “the climate change challenge can only be met if China takes a leading role and (accepts) its responsibility”. He also stated that “global contributions put on the table for reducing emissions are insufficient” for limiting temperature increases to 2°. Mr Reinfeldt affirmed that more had to be done. The EU wants Beijing to make more of an effort in meeting its commitments made on 26 November to reduce carbon emissions from the Chinese economy - polluting emissions per unit of GDP - from 40 to 45% by 2020 (compared to 2005 levels) in exchange for the European Union to step up environmental cooperation and increase technology transfers to developing economies. Mr Wen said that “this objective requires enormous efforts and will constitute a major contribution to global effort”. He promised that China would contribute to “pushing the Copenhagen conference forward in the right direction”. Both US President Barack Obama and the Chinese prime minister will go to the Danish capital. Mr Wen, nonetheless, reaffirmed China's wish to include differentiated treatment in the post-Kyoto agreement. The head of the Chinese government insisted that “the key to success would be following the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities”. China and developing countries believed that the developed countries should recognise their traditional responsibility for climate change and take on more of the collective burden. The most industrialised countries should also agree to provide appropriate financial support to developing countries and to transfer them technology on energy and environmental efficiency for which they are (particularly the EU) at the cutting edge internationally.
At a bilateral level, European and Chinese leaders are committed to stepping up their contribution to fostering trade and investment between the EU and China, and to significantly increasing access to their respective markets in an effort to combat the economic crisis. In their final declaration, the two parties reaffirm their commitment to high level economic and trade dialogue. European and Chinese leaders have agreed to do everything possible to increase openness and economic reform in their relations and to guarantee an open, stable and transparent environment in their respective economies, in an effort to create opportunities for their businesses. The EU and China will coordinate their efforts to facilitate trade and financial relationships between their SMEs and explore the possibilities for fostering cooperation in other domains, such as funding trade operations and technology transfer.
On the other hand, with regard to the question of exchange rates and the Chinese currency, European leaders did not manage to convince their Chinese counterparts of the need to revalue the yuan whose current under-evaluation is penalising the European and US economies (despite a significant delegation coming to Nanjing led by the president of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Junker from Luxembourg, the European commissioner for financial affairs, Joaquín Almunia, and the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet). Notwithstanding the greater flexibility demonstrated by China recently, the country confirmed that it would not significantly revalue the yuan in the short term. Mr Wen repeated to his European counterparts the importance of a stable currency for the Chinese economy and denounced the “unfair pressure” for increasing the value of the yuan. The Chinese prime minister explained that “maintaining a stable exchange rate for the renminbi is crucial for Chinese economic stability. We will continue to improve the exchange rate mechanism and maintain the basic stability of renminbi at an appropriate level”. He then denounced countries practising “trade protectionism in different guises”. On Sunday Mr Juncker, Mr Almunia and Mr Trichet again called on Beijing to promote an “ordered and gradual appreciation in the value of the renminbi”.
It should be underlined that in the backdrop to the summit, several cooperation agreements were signed, as well as a memorandum of understanding on phase 2 of the Near Zero Emission Coal Project, and a memorandum of understanding on cooperation mechanisms for industrial sectors. (E.H./transl.fl)