‘Climate change in trade’: battlelines drawn on Europe’s new China strategy

As national EU leaders meet in Brussels to thrash out a possible new China policy, speculation is high as to where they all stand amid fluid member-state dynamics. In the last part of this three-part series, we look at whether the conventional wisdom will be fundamentally changed in the EU and how the bloc could forge a united front in dealing with China.

Over dinner on Thursday, leaders from the European Union’s 27 member states will chew on one of their toughest courses in years: “global macroeconomic imbalances and their implications for Europe’s competitiveness and prosperity”.

In Brussels-speak, this mealy-mouthed dish is shorthand for “China” – an issue so difficult to digest that bureaucrats have avoided putting it on the menu at all.

However, as leaders gear up for their first meaningful debate about China in three years, their unwillingness to name it on the agenda speaks to the layers of trepidation at play.

Not only do they hope to avoid the forceful retaliation Beijing has pledged, but they are also mindful of needing to balance between the competing interests of the constituent members, each on its own journey with China.

Nonetheless, officials involved in the planning said a lack of written outcomes from the meeting should not be “confused with inaction” and that the council intended to give the commission “very powerful” guidance on how best to move forward.