The European Commission issued a press release on EU-China relations, including 10 action points to be reviewed by the European Council on March 21. Following are the highlights:

The European Union and China have committed to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Yet, there is a growing appreciation in Europe that the balance of challenges and opportunities China presents has shifted. The European Commission and the High Representative aim to start a discussion to refine Europe’s approach to be more realistic, assertive and multi-faceted.

China is simultaneously a cooperation partner with whom the EU has closely aligned objectives, a negotiating partner, with whom the EU needs to find a balance of interests, an economic competitor in pursuit of technological leadership, and a systemic rival promoting alternative models of governance. The EU aims to exert more leverage for its objectives in full unity. EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said the EU is now putting forward concrete proposals on how to strengthen its competitiveness, ensure more reciprocity and a level playing field, and protect its market economy from possible distortions.

The EU pursues three objectives:
• Based on clearly defined interests and principles, the EU should deepen its engagement with China to promote common interests at the global level.
• The EU should robustly seek more balanced and reciprocal conditions governing the economic relationship.
• Finally, in order to maintain its prosperity, values and social model over the long term, there are areas where the EU itself needs to adapt to changing economic realities and strengthen its own domestic policies and industrial base.

The Commission and the High Representative invite the European Council to endorse the following actions:

1. The EU will strengthen the EU’s cooperation with China to meet common responsibilities across all three pillars of the United Nations, Human Rights, Peace and Security, and Development.
2. In order to fight climate change more effectively, the EU calls on China to peak its emissions before 2030, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
3. The EU will deepen engagement on peace and security, building on the positive cooperation on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran.
4. To preserve its interest in stability, sustainable economic development and good governance in partner countries, the EU will apply more robustly the existing bilateral agreements and financial instruments, and work with China to follow the same principles through the implementation of the EU Strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia.
5. In order to achieve a more balanced and reciprocal economic relationship, the EU calls on China to deliver on existing joint EU-China commitments. This includes reforming the World Trade Organization, in particular on subsidies and forced technology transfers, and concluding bilateral agreements on investment by 2020, on geographical indications swiftly, and on aviation safety in the coming weeks.
6. To promote reciprocity and open up procurement opportunities in China, the European Parliament and the Council should adopt the International Procurement Instrument before the end of 2019.
7. To ensure that not only price but also high levels of labor and environmental standards are taken into account, the Commission will publish guidance by mid-2019 on the participation of foreign bidders and goods in the EU procurement market. The Commission, together with Member States, will conduct an overview of the implementation of the current framework to identify gaps before the end of 2019.
8. To fully address the distortive effects of foreign state ownership and state financing in the internal market, the Commission will identify before the end of 2019 how to fill existing gaps in EU law.
9. To safeguard against potential serious security implications for critical digital infrastructure, a common EU approach to the security of 5G networks is needed. To kickstart this, the European Commission will issue a Recommendation following the European Council.
10. To detect and raise awareness of security risks posed by foreign investment in critical assets, technologies and infrastructure, Member States should ensure the swift, full and effective implementation of the Regulation on screening of foreign direct investment.

The Joint Communication will be presented to the European Council on 21-22 March. The next EU-China Summit is scheduled for April 9, the EU Commission communicated in its press release. This week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend the ninth China-European Union High-Level Strategic Dialogue in Brussels and President Xi Jinping will visit Italy and France.

A Spokesman for the China Mission to the EU said: “It is our hope that the EU could view China’s development and fresh efforts to promote reform and opening up in an objective, reasonable and fair light, and join forces with China for a sustained, healthy and steady growth of China-EU relations.”