After the China-EU summit: reaffirming a comprehensive strategic partnership

On 14 February 2012, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hosted the China-EU summit in Beijing with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The summit had been set to take place in 2011, but as in the case of the previous summit in 2008, it had been rescheduled. However, schedule change in 2011 took place for different reasons and with different implications to 2008. The 11th summit, planned for 2008, was postponed by China after French president Nicolas Sarkozy in his capacity as the rotating president of the EU announced that he would meet with the Dalai Lama after the summit. In 2011, the 14th summit was postponed by the EU because it needed to focus on dealing with the debt crisis in
the Eurozone.

While 2008 marked a low point in the China-EU relationship, the summit’s postponement in 2011 did not affect the partnership. In fact, the 2012 summit has injected new vitality into the deepening of the comprehensive strategic partnership formally launched in 2003 between China and the EU. The 'People-to-People Dialogue' was established as a new pillar of the strategic partnership and concrete points for cooperation were outlined, covering various functional areas such as investment, urban planning and cybersecurity.