Brussels, 19/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - “We cannot exclude China when we speak about the future.” The words of the prime minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras, could sum up the brief but important exchange of views that the leaders of the EU27 held at the opening of the European Council on 18-19 October. The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, had wanted to debrief the heads of state and government on the results of the last EU-China summit in Brussels at the end of September, in view of the impending renewal of Chinese power. “In the longer term perspective, it is in Europe's core interest that China succeeds”, Van Rompuy said on Friday.
China is an essential partner of the EU and is now the EU's second trading partner. It has been a strategic partner since 2003 and EU-China trade relations have always been close. Throughout this relationship, China - often criticised for its unfair competition practices - must guarantee the EU the same degree of market openness as the EU offers China, certain European leaders recalled on Friday. “It's a question of fixing Europe's line for the partnership with China. We have made the line of coherence progress. The EU has good relations with China, and strong trading links which need to be strengthened, but with rules - reciprocity, to rebalance the exchange and to avoid all competition where each state tries to get more out, to the detriment of the other”, the president of France, François Hollande, explained. “The French president has made a good summary of what we ask the European Commission and the EU. While Chinese investment in Europe is strong, the inverse is less true. In terms of trade, we have a problem of reciprocity. We are going to draw up the list of industrial and economic obstacles, and continue our dialogue with the Chinese”, the prime minister of Belgium, Elio Di Rupo said (our translation throughout). (EH/transl.fl)