The EU’s strategic partnership with China: how to get it off the ground?

Closed lunch on the topic  of “The EU’s strategic partnership with China: how to get it off the ground?“

Guests

Angel Orbetsov, Director of Asia and Oceania Directorate, MFA

Boyan Georgiev, Chief Representative, ZTE Corporation Bulgaria

Ilin Stanev, Capital weekly

Julian Popov, Chair of the Board, Bulgarian school of politics

Meglena Kuneva, ECFR Council Member and ex-Commissioner

Sasha Bezuhanova, HP Bulgaria

Vladimir Shopov, Analyst

 

 

Chaired by

Jonas Parello-Plesner and Alice Richard, ECFR

The European Council on Foreign Relations organized a closed lunch under the title of “The EU’s strategic partnership with China: how to get it off the ground?“ This lunch was dedicated to the research work of our two colleagues from London Jonas Parello-Plesner and Alice Richard. 

China has gone from being a distant, developing country to a global power that plays an important role in all aspects of European policymaking. Combined with the global financial crisis of 2008, and the resulting stress on public debt in many European member states, China became, for the first time, a provider of commercial and financial opportunity to Europe. European leaders seemed to face up to this new reality and reassessed its “strategic partnership” with China in 2010. The question is still how to get bilateral relations and EU-priorities move in a coordinated way.