European Union

"Leaders announced the establishment of the China-EU Partnership on Urbanisation, which aims at promoting exchanges and cooperation in a wide range of sustainable urban development. The two sides agreed to hold the first China-EU Mayors' Forum in 2012".

 Premier WEN, President Barroso, President Van Rompuy, Joint Statement of the EU-China Summit, 14 February 2012, Beijing

The speed and scale of urban development in China is a phenomenon unprecedented in human history. On 12 January 2012, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced that the Chinese urbanization level crossed the highly symbolic 50% threshold during the previous year. This mega-trend is far from over: according to some estimates, 350 million people will be added to China’s urban population by 2030.

This is both a major challenge and a unique opportunity, echoing the strategic objectives of economic rebalancing and a more qualitative, smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Managing the challenges of urbanisation is a key task if we move towards a "green growth" strategy, stressing the importance of efficient use of resources and protection of the environment while ensuring economic growth.

Prolonging Shanghai Expo’s “Better City Better Life” spirit for the years to come, the China-EU partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation will offer a natural framework for concerted actions, such as a new programme designed to assist Chinese mayors, and the creation of an annual EU-China Urban Forum from 2012 onwards. The political initiative should also constitute a platform for Member States to leverage their existing and future actions in the field of urbanisation in China.

Reference Documents

• Video of Li Keqiang’s speech at the launch event of the EU-China Urbanisation Partnership: please click [here]
• EU-China Joint Declaration on Urbanisation 03 May 2012 [762 KB]  [CN Version [885 KB] ]
• Shanghai Expo 2010, Closing Declaration "Better City Better Life" [32 KB]
• indicative programme of the China Urbanisation Summer Roadshow 2012 [517 KB]
• EU-China Partnership on Urbanisation Factsheet [141 KB]

 

Cooperation at Central level

• Regional policy in China and the EU - a comparative perspective [613 KB]
• Mainstreaming Sustainable Urbanisation in EU-China sectoral dialogues: the example of Energy [881 KB]
• EU Ambassador Ederer, opening remarks at the 5th International Urbanisation Summit Beijing, 16 November 2011 [39 KB]

 

City Networking

• EU-China Mayor's Forum
• The EU green digital charter for cities [165 KB]
• Action fiche for the eco-urbanisation project with Chinese Mayors [4 MB]
• Europe-Asia Sustainable Towns project "EAST": http://east-project.org
• EU Covenant of Mayors 
• Programme of Three Chinese Vice-Mayor to Brussels 15 February 2012 [32 KB]

• Inventory of twinning agreements between Chinese and European Cities [69 KB]

 

Science and Technology-Smart Digital Cities

• Research Project UrbaChina
• CIVITAS clean urban mobility 
• The EU green digital charter for cities
• 2011"EU-China Green Smart Cities and Internet-of-Things(IoT) Application" Workshop [142 KB]
• Declaration by EU Energy Commissioner Oettinger, for the launch of the EU Smart Cities & Communities Initiative, Brussels, 21 June 2011 [24 KB]
• The Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA)

 

Business and Finance Pillar

• 7th EU-China Business Summit ,Panel on "Opportunities in Urbanisation" 14 February 2012

• Online catalogue of EU energy-efficient building solutions
• EU-China Sutainable Urbanisation Park in Shenyang  [3 MB]
• Speech of EU Ambassador Ederer in Shenyang, 23 July 2012 [101 KB]
• Press release for the launching ceremony of the Sustainable Urbanisation Park, 23 July 2012 [15 KB] [中文 CN version [37 KB] ]

 

Culture and Civil Society

      Roundtable European Economic and Social Committee and China Economic and Social Council

• Minutes of the 11th EU-China Roundtable 12-13 April 2012 Hangzhou [474 KB]
• 12 proposals at the 10th EU-China Roundtable between European Economic and Social Committee & China Economic and Social Council, held on 1-2 [74 KB]

      EU-China High Level Cultural Forum "Inventing Cities"27-28 October 2011,Beijing

• Commissioner Vassiliou, at the opening of the EU-China High Level Cultural Forum "inventing the City", Beijing, 27-28 October 2011
• Academic report [311 KB]

      EU-China Youth Dialogue-Action plan on urbanisation defined in Chengdu,19-24 Feb 2012

    Understanding China programme roundtable, co-organised by Friends of Europe, EUROCHAMBRES and co-funded by the European Commission:

•     Roundtable report: Greening China’s cities of tomorrow – 8 March 2012, Brussels

 

Other Speeches

• EU Ambassador Ederer,opening remarks at the "High Level Roundtable on Water Resources Management System Development in China",20 April,212 [86 KB]
• Polish Ambassador Tadeusz Chomincki, at Urban China Initiative annual conference, Beijing, 22 October 2011 [52 KB]
• EU Ambassdor Ederer, keynote address on “China goes Urban: opportunities in urbanisation" Conference,27 June 2012 [93 KB]

 

The Partnership in the News

• CCTV coverage of the 03 May event in Brussels

• Article in China Daily 22 June [68 KB]

 

Friends of the EU-China Partnership on Urbanisation

• UCI The Urban China Initiative
• The Climate Group Greater China
• Cities Development Initiative for Asia
• EU-China Sustainable Urbanisation Park homepage

 

European contacts 

In Brussels:

Mr Pedro Ballesteros  [107 KB]

European Commission/ DG Energy

Pedro.Ballesteros@ec.europa.eu

+32.2.29.67.839

 

In Beijing:

Mr Laurent Javaudin

EU Delegation to China                                          

Laurent.javaudin@eeas.europa.eu

+8610.8454.8194

 

For Intern application

• For the internship of sustainable urbanization [33 KB]
• For the internship of energy [29 KB]