Centre for European Reform
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A COMPACT BETWEEN CHINA
AND THE EUROPEAN UNION
Both the European Union and China are committed to giving the Sino-European relationship a genuinely
strategic dimension. Since they announced this objective in 2004, there has been a blossoming of ‘strategic
dialogues’, both bilateral and multilateral. These have ensured that broader strategic and geo-political issues
are now on the agenda when China talks to the EU and to the leading member-states.
The next step is to find ways of translating this dialogue into an expansion and deepening of co-operation at
a practical level. This will involve efforts to advance a working partnership in areas where substantial scope
for co-operation already exists, as well as further exploration and dialogue in areas where there are
differences, or where the necessary groundwork still needs to be laid.
The EU and China have important relationships with third parties, in particular the US, that need to be taken
into account. But both sides, while being mindful of the interests and preferences of key allies, should ensure
that this does not act as a brake on taking forward co-operation in areas where there is a clear value to all
sides in the further development of Sino-European partnership.
This short paper, written by researchers from think-tanks in China and from the EU, is designed to set out a
concrete agenda for co-operation. By concentrating on some of the most important issues of concern on the
global agenda – global and regional governance, development, energy and non-proliferation – it seeks to do
three things:
★ Set out the outlines of a practical ‘action agenda’ for an EU-China strategic partnership.
★ Indicate some agreed principles that could lend themselves to a framework for future co-operation.
★ Suggest topics that should be addressed through the various EU-China dialogues, both at an official level
and through a ‘second