Aware of their need to advance their relations, both sides in the annual EU-China Summit Meeting in Helsiesnki September 9 emphasised the progress on some major issues while seeking to relegate past and future difficulties into the background.

The 9th annual Summit held just prior to the 10th anniversary Asia-Europe Summit in the Finnish capital was hosted by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen in his capacity as President of the EU Council and EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

To summarise their conclusions on the relationship after the meeting, the two sides agreed that the past decades had been marked by profound changes in both China and the EU and that the strengthening of the relationship had been of "great value" to both, to Europe and Asia and the world.

In other portions of his European contacts, Prime Minister Wen and his British and German hosts organised major commercial or political agreements that also maintained the rapid momentum of the relations. Both these countries have been major European commercial and trading partners for China in recent years. In Germany, however, a clear political shift in political tone was evident since the replacement of the Social-Democratic led Schroeder Government by a more right-of-centre grand coalition led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has staked out a position more critical of China and more aligned toward the US.

The tour took place against a background of a series of policy and trade difficulties stretching back through 2005 and early 2006 which had shaken the prospects for a new EU-China alignment and just ahead of a new trade challenge lodged by the EU, US and Canada before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the lucrative trade in automobile parts. Just a few days before the Helsinki meeting, the European Parliament also adopted a resolution that covered both the entire array of criticisms and grievances levelled toward China as well as the strong and positive points of the relationship. Also on a more positive related issue, the EU Commission just a few days later approved a grant by the French Government of €100 million for Eurocopter company research toward a new Franco-Chinese civilian helicopter.

But the key result of the 2006 Summit was the agreement to begin negotiations on a new bilateral framework agreement to replace and update a 1985 accord in order guide their relationship. Such a willingness had been expressed in principle for several years and announced as a priority objective in 2005. But actual launching of the talks had slipped due to what was sometimes described as either irritation or indifference on the part of China, bureaucratic confusion in the EU and substantive differences over the nature and contents of the proposed accord.

Their joint declaration after the meeting noted that the new accord should "reflect the breadth and depth of today's comprehensive strategic partnership between the EU and China." The entire declaration also covered virtually every major issue between the two sides, including such difficult ones as the unfulfilled objective of the EU lifting of its 16-year old arms embargo on China and the past refusal of the EU to grant market economy status to China which affects trade and anti-dumping cases. In both these matters, the two sides said they would continue to work and discuss the situation. This was also the case on other thorny subjects ranging from intellectual property rights protection and human rights in China.

Just after and in the aftermath of the ASEM Business Forum, an EU-China Business Summit was also held in Helsinki on September 12, which was attended by Prime Minister Wen, EU Commissioner for enterprise and industry policy Gunter Verheugen, as well as other ministers and business executive. Verheugen and the participants underlined the need to promote innovation together and to keep trade and investment issues at the core of their relations.