Malmstrom said the 28-member European Union agreed with Beijing’s path toward a more market-oriented economy but hadn’t seen “much progress”.
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Two other EU officials said they expect the investment pledge to go ahead because Europe’s fund is backed by the EU budget and the European Investment Bank (EIB).
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (L) shakes hands with European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini at the 6th round of China-EU high-level strategic dialogue in Brussels, Belgium, June 10, 2016.
In an apparent reference to the British exit from the EU, China’s premier, Li Keqiang, said China would continue to support the EU no matter how the global situation changes.
“China has a lot of liquidity and needs to invest it somewhere”, one senior European Union official said, asking not to be named.
Asked about the key topic of the upcoming summit, Mogherini said: “I will focus in particular on our worldwide agenda and Afghanistan. We are not defenceless, and we will use all the means at our disposal”, Juncker said in Beijing after talks with the Chinese government.
Juncker was in Beijing along with Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and others to attend a two-day China-EU summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
This is a hard subject for us, this is an as hard subject for the Chinese partners and we agreed this morning to establish a common working group, a kind of steel platform between China and the European Union to keep alive the debates and the discussions we have related to the steel overproduction and we would like this platform, this working group to be dealing with verification and monitoring mechanisms.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has praised outgoing British Prime Minister David Cameron and says he will miss him.
China should remove barriers and provide better legal certainty for businesses, while all parties must observe global trade systems and their rules, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday.
Steel industry pain prompted Tata Steel to announce the sale of its loss-making United Kingdom operations earlier this year.
“And we would like this platform, this working group to be dealing with verification and monitoring mechanisms”.
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Premier Li said Wednesday that the Chinese economy is on course to meet its major targets this year, with second-quarter growth likely to be close to the first quarter’s 6.7% level when results are announced Friday.
