17/10/2019 (Agence Europe) – German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced on Thursday 17 October that Germany will make relations with China a key topic during its Presidency of the Council of the EU. Germany will take on the Presidency in the second half of 2020. Europeans want to rebalance their relationship with China and there are many topics open for discussion: reciprocity in terms of access to investment, state aid, forced technology transfer, geographical indications, G5, human rights, and multilateralism. In fact, Berlin could work to convince Beijing to engage more in multilateral fora, and particularly in the WTO, which the EU wants to thoroughly reform by the end of 2020. (CG and HD)