China’s leadership seeks to boost EU relations

Final EU-China summit for Wen Jiabao.

China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will travel to Brussels next Thursday (20 September) for his last summit with EU leaders, just weeks before he and President Hu Jiantao step aside as part of wide-ranging changes to China’s leadership that will take effect in March.

Jiabao’s message to the EU will emphasise continuity in Chinese policymaking.

However, Jiabao will also set out areas where the EU and China could boost their relationship over the next decade, a Chinese diplomat said.

The agenda of the twice-yearly summit is long and still not fixed – the EU’s Council of Ministers is still “working day and night”, one official said – but traditionally the larger part of these summits has been devoted to economic issues. Jiabao will be looking to hear first-hand from the presidents of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, and of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, about plans to extricate the eurozone from its crisis and about where the EU envisions growth coming from.

Beijing has identified green growth and energy as priority areas for China’s growth and also for co-operation with Europe.

Solar panels

The Commission’s decision on 6 September to investigate complaints that China has been dumping solar panels is likely to be raised with Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, as will progress on talks towards an EU-China investment agreement intended in part to improve protection of investors’ intellectual property.

Atypically, Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, will also be at the summit. Her discussion over lunch will touch on the Middle East, with Syria probably being the focus. The EU will be pushing China to change its resistance to concerted international action at the UN General Assembly, which begins in New York on 18 September.