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China, EU will hold summit in November

By Zhang Haizhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-20 09:35

The second Sino-EU summit of this year will be held in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, at the end of November.

EU diplomats in Beijing said Monday that discussions will center on global warming, energy and the financial crisis, William Fingleton, spokesman of the Delegation of the European Commission to China, told China Daily.

"Climate change is a very big issue, as it's just one week before the (United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen)," he said. The one-day Sino-EU summit is on Nov 30.

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Fingleton said the EU has yet to designate its final team to attend the summit, but European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has confirmed his attendance. Stavros Dimas, the 27-nation bloc's commissioner for environment, and Catherine Ashton, the commissioner for trade, might also come.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, will also attend the summit, said Swedish Ambassador Mikael Lindstrom.

He also said Premier Wen Jiabao would represent China at the summit.

Summits such as November's meeting are normally held once a year. The 2008 meeting was postponed to this May in Prague due to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama late last year, which disrupted Sino-EU ties.

"Europeans now know handling ties with China on an ideological basis won't do," said Wu Baiyi, a European studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

During the upcoming summit in Nanjing, Wu said both sides are likely to reach consensus that continued stimulus spending is still necessary during the economic crisis.

Feng Zhongping, chief of European studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said anti-dumping is also likely to be discussed.