Brussels, 28/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The very first visit of a Chinese president to the European institutions is taking place in a relaxed atmosphere on the trade front.
The European tour of China's President Xi Jinping will come to an end in Belgium on 30 March to 1 April. Xi, the new Chinese head of state, will be hosted in Brussels on Monday by the presidents of the European Council, European Commission and European Parliament - Herman Van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso and Martin Schulz respectively. Xi's visits to the Commission, then to the seat of the Council will be followed by a working lunch. He will then visit the European Parliament.
Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Africa, East Asia and Ukraine will be the focus of discussions on international issues. On the bilateral level, trade relations will dominate the agenda. The atmosphere is more relaxed than a few months ago - with the settlement in summer 2013 of the EU's anti-dumping investigation into Chinese solar panels, then the settlement in the last two weeks of the Chinese anti-dumping investigations into polysilicon and European wine. The EU also announced on 27 March that is was abandoning its anti-dumping investigation against Chinese telecoms equipment - nevertheless leaving its anti-subsidy investigation in place to negotiate a definitive settlement of this issue. This will allow the EU-China strategic agenda up until 2020 to be discussed calmly. The issue of human rights is due to be addressed on the sidelines.
On 1 April, Xi will make a speech on EU-China relations at the College of Europe in Bruges, where future EU officials are trained. (EH)