By Benita Ferrero-Waldner
As we look forward to the Year of the Pig, we are all hoping for
good things: greater prosperity for ourselves and for others, peace
in the world, progress in tackling the challenges that face us.
I believe that this will indeed be an important year, but I
believe that we have a responsibility to make our own good fortune.
The factors that govern the well-being of people across the world
trade, security, climate change, energy security are not matters of
luck. We have to be proactive.
This week I am visiting Beijing to launch negotiations on a new
Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union
and China an agreement that I believe will contribute to a better
future for millions of people.
Together the EU and China make up almost one third of the people
on the planet. When we act together it has an impact not only on
our own bilateral relationship but on the wider world.
We are building a strategic partnership that already has a
strong base: Europe is China's biggest trading partner. We are both
committed to strong and effective multilateral institutions. We
both recognize the need for a coordinated response to global
challenges like climate change.
Two emerging giants
And we are both emerging giants. China is changing before our
eyes, almost literally. Spectacular economic growth has been
harnessed to raise more people out of poverty more rapidly than
ever before. The European Union is growing in size and in its
capacity to act on the world stage. We are both gaining in
influence and responsibility. And the truth is that whether we are
talking about international challenges like nuclear proliferation,
or the environment, or fair trade, neither of us will fully realize
our objectives without a firm and effective partnership with the
other.
Why do we need a new agreement between the EU and China just
now? Because the existing agreement has simply not kept pace with
our rapidly expanding partnership. Two decades ago we signed a
Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement which provided a good
basis for us to build on. But the tentative trade relations of the
1980s bear little resemblance to the extensive and complex
relationship of the 21st century.
The context in which we relate to each other has also moved on.
We face global challenges which do not respect international
borders. China's growing economic muscle means that more often than
not its challenges have global implications.
It is more essential than ever that we assume our shared
responsibilities: to ensure that world trade operates with fair
competition; to tackle climate change and work for energy security;
to use our wealth wisely to help others develop, particularly in
Africa.
This is why it is so important that we optimize the potential of
our strategic partnership through the negotiations that I am
launching this week.
In addition to trade, the agreement will provide a comprehensive
framework for the 22 sectors in which the EU and China already hold
dialogues, including energy, the environment, agriculture,
transport, customs, education, the information society, science and
technology, and space cooperation. It will cover other key issues
such as migration, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
Ambitious partnership
This new agreement will lay the foundations for a still more
ambitious and mature partnership.
There will be a range of complex issues to be discussed as part
of the negotiation process: political, cultural and technical. And
we have to consider whether and how aspects of the Trade and
Economic Cooperation Agreement should be updated. Of course there
will be moments when we disagree, but we are impatient to get down
to work with our Chinese counterparts in a positive spirit of
cooperation.
I am optimistic that we will make real progress, and that the
steering committee which will coordinate the negotiations will have
initial practical results to report back to the next EU-China
Summit later this year.
In 2007 we are setting out to intensify one of the world's most
important partnerships. The negotiations we launch this week are
one of the most important items on the European Union's agenda and,
I trust, on China's. Together the EU and China can do more to reach
their objectives and promote their interests than they ever would
be able to achieve apart.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner is the European Commissioner for
External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy.
(China Daily January 17, 2007)
