Brussels, 30/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - EU Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has welcomed China's interest in closer ties with the European continent, particularly over education, culture and multilingualism issues. This increased Chinese interest has been manifest over the past three years, and various joint statements have been published in this connection. The commissioner was accompanying other EU commissioners and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, during an official visit to Beijing to build on EU-Chinese dialogue on common challenges like economic growth, energy, climate change and trade (see EUROPE 10129). Vassiliou said that education, youth and culture were at the heart of this and it was only by working together that it would be possible to generate mutual understanding to pave the way for actual cooperation in other domains. She met with the Chinese education minister, Yuan Guiren, culture minister, Cai Wu, and the vice-president of the All China Youth Federation, Lu Yongzheng. Their discussions touched on the high-level EU-China forum in Brussels this year alongside the EU-China summit and 2011 as the Year of European and Chinese Youth. After the summer holidays, the European Commission is expected to sign an agreement with China on the Year of European and Chinese Youth. Vassiliou noted that China is more interested in the EU's education programme Erasmus Mundus than in the past. Nine hundred Chinese students have taken part in Erasmus Mundus since its launch in 2004. China is now increasingly involved in the Marie Curie research programme. The commissioner said that people in China are hugely interested in learning more about Europe, and in Europeinterest in China will increase exponentially. She said this boded well for the future. (I.L./transl.fl)