Landmark EU-China summit advances 2020 strategic agenda

BEIJING hosted on Tuesday and Wednesday a China-EU summit led by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Key developments included the finalisation and signing of an EU-China Roadmap on Energy Cooperation for 2016-2020.

The important meeting, held in the framework of the jointly agreed 2020 strategic agenda for cooperation, focused on bilateral political and economic relations, in addition to global and regional issues, with climate change at the fore of this. Among the key items on the table were the UK's vote to exit the EU, Chinese investment in the EU's new infrastructure fund, European participation in China's "One Belt One Road" 21st Century Silk Road project, completion of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, China's market economy status, international migration, and the ongoing human rights dialogue between Brussels and Beijing. There were also preparatory talks for the G-20 summit, to be held in early September in China.

As in previous EU-China dialogues, there was fruitful bilateral conversation at the summit on energy and global warming issues, and leaders assessed the implementation of the 2015 EU-China climate change declaration as well as signing the 2016-2020 energy roadmap. Under this, agreed shortly before last December's Paris Summit, both parties agreed to cooperate on developing a cost-effective low carbon economy.