EU-China Archives

The European Union and China agreed to enhance market access and investment and to speed up negotiations over geographical indications during a leaders’ summit in Beijing on Monday (16 July). But EU leaders indicated they wanted to see China's promises translated into action.

China is set to make further inroads into European infrastructure, as a state-owned company attempts to gain full control of Portugal’s power grid.

The EU and China are speeding up preparatory work for their bilateral summit in Beijing in mid-July. The two sides are trying to agree on a joint position despite differences on trade issues including subsidies and market access.

The EU leaders agreed “in substance” on Thursday (28 June) on a set of proposals to improve the World Trade Organisation, which should pave the way for finding common ground with US President Donald Trump and de-escalating the ongoing trade dispute. But Italy blocked their formal adoption until the migration issue was fully addressed.

The EU and China said on Friday (1 June) they would expand trade and investment cooperation amid the global trade dispute triggered by US tariffs. But as part of the efforts to address outstanding trade disputes, Europe will present a complaint before the World Trade Organisation against China’s intellectual property practices.

The European solar industry has urged the EU to end import duties on Chinese photovoltaic cells when anti-dumping measures expire in September, saying they are holding off a “jobs bonanza” in the sector.

China's massive Belt and Road Initiative is seen as a unique chance to strengthen economic cooperation between Beijing and Europe and a way to spur trade and the economies of the countries involved. But some consider it a strategic and self-interested tool for China to extend its sphere of influence.

China’s ‘Belt & Road’ initiative, a network of overland road and rail routes and maritime links meant to transport oil and gas from China to Europe, has been described as a 21st century silk road. But how long can it last?

European Union and Italian authorities are investigating suspected wide-scale tax fraud by Chinese criminal gangs importing goods via Greece’s largest port of Piraeus, a trade gateway between China and Europe, officials said.

The Czech Republic is the fourth most open country for foreign investments in the world. But it has no control mechanism to prevent risky foreign investment, and economic and political influence from the East is growing rapidly, EURACTIV.cz reports.

Trade discussions with the US are progressing well, European Commission vice-president Jyrki Katainen said on Tuesday (10 April). However, he lamented the “deteriorating” business climate in China.

Global trade is in peril like never before. Over the past weeks, the world has entered a full-fledged trade war involving the largest economies (the US, China and the EU) on more than one front.

The European Commission is “closely examining” the option of filing complaints against China before the World Trade Organization for their rules and practices on intellectual property, a spokesperson told EURACTIV on Wednesday (4 April).

The temperature is rising between the United States and China but the simmering confrontation has not yet boiled over into a trade war, since the tit-for-tat countermeasures so far have been confined to a few specific products.

An EU-funded bridge project that will connect Croatia's southernmost tip with the rest of the Adriatic nation moved up a gear on Monday (26 March), when a public procurement body signed off on a Chinese company's construction bid.

China believes the Visegrad group in the European Union - Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland - is the bloc's most dynamic force, China's top diplomat said, praising a grouping which has had strained ties with Western Europe.

China has used the international economic crisis to elbow its way towards a dominant position on the global market. Its New Silk Road is seen as an attempt to create a massive, multi-national zone of economic and political influence, including in Central Europe. EURACTIV Poland/Czech Republic/Slovakia and Political Capital report.

South East Asian countries are dragging their feet on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the EU, with officials saying that the countries still need to be convinced of the benefits of the region-to-region deal.

The European Union’s scientific research centre has explored the idea of linking the power grids of Europe and China, in order to tap into the immense clean energy potential of the Middle Kingdom and the countries of Central Asia.

For the first time in the history of the European Patent Office, a Chinese company came on top in terms of patent applications in 2017, a year that saw a new record in the number of requests for intellectual property protection in Europe.

At a time of increased tensions between Brussels and Beijing, the two partners met in Venice on Friday (19 January) to launch the EU-China Tourism Year, hoping to patch up or better revitalise relations.

The European Commission launched an investigation on Thursday (21 December) into whether Chinese exporters of electronic bicycles (e-bikes) benefited from excessive state subsidies, increasing trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing.

China launched what will become the world’s largest carbon market on Tuesday (19 December), surpassing the EU’s flagship market mechanism to cap and trade emissions. The scheme is part of a host of major policies China is using to peak its GHGs by 2030.

The EU has a trash problem. It used to ship 60% of plastics and 13% of paper collected for recycling to China, but Beijing has decided to curb its appetite for foreign waste.