Joint Declaration on
EU-China Research Cooperation:
Building a Knowledge for Growth Pact
The European Commission and the Government of China held a High Level Forum on S&T
Policy and Development in Beijing on 12/13 May 2005. This major event coincid es with the 30 th
anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the European Union. Both sides agreed on
guidelines for the future cooperation in research and technological development (RTD), thus
giving a further boost to the rapidly developing str ategic partnership. Leading personalities
representing the governments, science, and industry reviewed the RTD relations between China
and Europe and made recommendations for future developments.
1.
A new political and economic paradigm for our RTD coop eration
The partnership that links China and Europe has a long history. This history has always included
a significant scientific research and technological dimension. Through the signing of a science
and technology (S&T) cooperation agreement in 1998, th e EU-China cooperation received a
strong impetus and significant progress was recorded in research fields such as ITER, SARS,
Galileo, energy, new materials, biotechnology, aeronautics , space, hydrogen economy and
information technology. Our cooperation i s a success and is growing in vigour and stature.
S&T relations between Europe and China are contributing to mutual understanding of their
people. Based on common goals and understanding, cultural values and scientific goals, the S&T
relations reached a level such as to make a significant contribution to the overall good relations
between Europe and China.
We feel that the present cooperation should be further developed in the spirit of mutual benefit
and progressive convergence of research policies so t hat it contributes directly to the
improvement of economic competitiveness and to the achievement of common solutions to
problems faced by our societies. The EU -China RTD cooperation is entering a new develop