Policy paper charts China-EU cooperation in next decade

China on Wednesday issued a policy paper to define its policy objectives towards the European Union and blueprint comprehensive bilateral cooperation in the next five to ten years. [Special coverage]

The document, consisting of 10 parts, reviews the progress of China-EU strategic partnership in the last decade and suggests how to deepen collaboration covering politics, trade and economy, urbanization, finance, agriculture, science and technology, education, culture and other sectors.

China's Policy Paper on the EU: Deepen the China-EU Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Mutual Benefit and Win-win Cooperation is the second of this kind, following the first one issued in November 2003.

China is the EU's second largest trading partner. The EU has been China's top trading partner for 10 years. The annual trade volume has exceeded 550 billion US dollars and there have been over 5 million visits between the two sides each year, the paper said.

China and the EU have worked together to tackle the international financial crisis and advance global governance reform, stepped up communication and coordination on major international and regional issues, and contributed significantly to world peace, development and cooperation, the paper said.

China vows to build partnerships for peace, growth, reform and civilization with the EU, the paper said.

On economic cooperation and trade, the paper said China will actively advance negotiations of an investment agreement between China and the EU, and strive to achieve an agreement as soon as possible to facilitate two-way investment.

"China views the EU as one of its most important trade and investment partners and hopes that both sides will contribute to the long-term, steady and in-depth development of their economic and trade relationship," it said.

"China will continue to urge the EU to ease its restrictions on and facilitate high-tech product and technology export to China, so as to release the great potential of bilateral high-tech trade," it said.

China also expressed the will to enhance cooperation in such areas as quality supervision, inspection and quarantine, and e-commerce.

Concerning fiscal and financial cooperation, China expressed welcome for financial institutions from EU member states to start business in China under relevant Chinese laws and regulations.

China and the EU will strive to expand the interflow of students between the two sides to 300,000 person times per year by 2020, the paper said.

China hopes that the EU could take credible steps to protect the safety and lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens in Europe, and make it easier for Chinese nationals to travel to Europe by, among other things, streamlining visa, immigration and residence procedures.

On tourism, both sides will push for the establishment of China-EU tourism cooperation mechanism, further explore each other's tourism market, maintain exchanges of tourism policies and statistics, and work for the early signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Tourism Cooperation, the paper said.

China and the EU seek to explore judicial cooperation in anti-corruption, combating organized transnational crimes, extradition, transfer of sentenced persons and criminal assets recovery, and promote experience sharing on legal supervision, it said.