Ambassadors,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First, many thanks Dear Jorge Toledo, Ambassador of the European Union to the People’s Republic of China and your excellent team for setting up this important conference here in Beijing today.
Thank you for your invitation.

I am happy and honored to get the opportunity to be back in China and to wave to representatives from the Ministry of Foreign affairs from the People’s Republic of China.

And to thank you for being here today in the diversity of your positions, embassies, universities, businesses, press, and citizens from Europe and the People’s Republic of China.

Ladies and gentlemen,

A birthday, even at fifty years, is not a time for any kind of nostalgia, even less a moment for self-satisfaction.

Such a moment shall be a take-stock to measures progress that have been made and evaluate remaining unbalances.

As a former Prime minister of France, a former EU commissioner it is not in my habits to give any kind of lesson.

I would rather share my experience, which is quite long as my grey hair proves it, and my convictions on the necessity of a better common understanding between Chinese and Europeans on the three responsibilities we must embrace to contribute to new world order.

Number One: Security and stability 
Number Two: Free and fair trade 
Number Three: Preserving multilateralism

First, Security and Stability 

Our world is uncertain today. The frequency and intensity of crises intensify with risks of regional powder kegs being lighted.
In the middle-east of course, the rising tensions between Pakistan and India, which we hope are now deescalating, but also closer to us in the Indo-Pacific area.
Obviously, the war of aggression war launched by Russia against a sovereign state, Ukraine, has shaken our European certitudes 
Three hours by plane from Brussels or Paris, war is there. Thousands of people are dying on the altar of their freedom and sovereignty. 
Russia’s aggression has had wide-ranging consequences for the EU. It has challenged European interests and European sovereignty on many accounts, such as energy independence or food security. 
We believed it is up to the great powers, particularly the five nuclear states or the P5, to shoulder its responsibilities at a time when one of them has behaved against the very core principles of United Nations Charter it committed to uphold.

The high scale Russian invasion has indeed changed everything. 
It weakened foundations of the global order built around the United Nations Charter, in particular the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

We know and we respect, as Europeans, the relationship between the People’s Republic of China and Russia but it cannot go unnoticed in Europe and it has consequences to Europe-China relations.
In the current situation, we wish that China’s influence can be leveraged to encourage Russia to end this aggression in Ukraine and respond to Ukraine’s proposal for a full ceasefire of hostilities. 
Will later come a time to discuss and establish the framework and principle for sustainable peace and stability in Europe.
A few months ago, I was in Munich and I was glad to hear Minister Wang Yi reminding that sustainable peace in Europe cannot be achieved without the agreement and engagement of both Ukraine and the European Union.

Yesterday, we celebrated here in Beijing at the French embassy and in all European capitals the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe. 
It is always a reason to remember that the promise of peace in Europe was born at this moment.
This promise has always been respected between us Europeans and with new member states which had been for decades under the soviet influence.
The European project is one of peace. 
We were not born Europeans, we became Europeans.

Our second joint responsibility is to economic stability and level playing field
Of course, President Trump is here but what is important is not what he says or will say in the future, he always does what he says but changes his mind a lot. The important is what the Europeans will do, what the Chinese will do.

This is precisely the moment to evaluate imbalances between us, to reduce them, to resolve ongoing issues without looking to what Washington does or does not do!

The global economy, the global order, need stability, predictability, rules agreed and respected by everyone, everywhere. 
EU- China trade remains robust, and our investments ties are deep.
China is the EU’s third largest partner, after the US and the UK, with over 2 billion euros a day trade flows
China is a crucial supplier of many goads that are not easily sourced from elsewhere in the short term
However, we have three major concerns:
China’s current trade and investment strategy that increasingly strain our relationship.
China’s distortive policies which lead to industrial overcapacity.
Tariffs are not a political topic.
These challenges are not only economic issues but also have a social and political nature as our public opinions turn an increasingly negative eye to free trade because ongoing imbalances threaten European industries and ultimately European jobs.
This trend is fueling populism in European countries, including France, and can only have bad consequences for us Europeans but also for our trade and relations with China against which populist will inevitably turn against, as they did in the United States.
It will therefore be crucial, in both our interests in the middle and long term to rebalance our relationship around transparency, predictability and reciprocity. 
And we as Europeans will keep engaging constructively with China to ensure that competition and trade are free, fair and rules based. And, where possible, even to expand our trade and investments ties.

Ladies and gentlemen,

On this topic, as regarding others, we are at a time of truth.
We must succeed together, in a few weeks’ time, during China-EU summit here in China in July. 
Again, I believe we shall write together a new chapter in our relationship, in our long history 
We should go over certain topics which lead to a pointless politization of our trade relationship.
I speak about subventions for production, the reciprocal access to our markets.
As a former agriculture minister in France, I can speak for the profound non understanding of the measures taken here over brandies and cognac. Our national pride, in many European countries and in particular in France is our culinary traditions and our ancestral “savoir-faire” !
This is the case for Cognac in France, this is the reason this situation is complicated for us and why many have been harmed by this decision in my country.

We should avoid to create political issues in one or another country over trade matters.

If we put things into perspectives, if we level up the horizon line, we have more reasons to establish a concrete level playing field and to create positive synergies between our two great markets.

I trust that the high-level meeting tomorrow in Paris between the French finance minister Eric Lombard and the vice Chinese prime minister He Lifang will have Euro-Chinese dimension

In the middle and long term, you and us, must develop our trade exchanges with the rest of the world.

The former chief executive of World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy lately reminded that 85 % of global trade is made outside of the United States.

Once again, we shall create synergies between our two great markets 
Let me commend the steady and important role of the European Union Chamber of Commerce, chaired by president Eskelund, as well as member states chambers of commerce in tirelessly defending European businesses’ interests in China.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Our third responsibility is to stand together in front of global challenges.
These challenges know no borders.
The most important, the most serious, of them being climate change.
We are at the heart of the decade of action since the Paris agreement in 2015
The European Union and China must strengthen their role within multilateralism assets 
It is the same for protection of biodiversity despite and maybe because, of the American retreat.

As the French Foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot recalled in March this year, the Beijing call is extremely important.
In a few weeks’ time, France will host in Nice the third United Nations conference on the Ocean, quickly followed later this year by the COP30 in Brazil.
In the context of these meetings, we want to cooperate with Chine on specific tools such as the treaty protecting biodiversity in deep seas which we are waiting for the entry into force and the implementation
On all of these challenges of climate change, renewable energies, including nuclear energy, for carbon net-zero, which are vital challenges for future generations, if China and the European Union are ambitious, the world will be more ambitious and we will increase our chances to succeed

Over global challenges, there is of course the revolution led by AI. 
We thank the vice Prime minister Zhang Guoqing for taking part in the Paris AI Forum in February 
We must work together to develop AI and to protect our citizens data! 
Europe needs to be ready to engage China on this topic and discuss China’s proposals

Ladies and gentlemen,

The meaning of our meeting is to know each other, to interact, to assess, to evaluate common challenges in front of us and act together, as much as we can, in a good spirit

These exchanges must not be reserved to elites or leaders, I speak of people to people exchanges 
I speak of universities, 
I speak of research and development,
I speak of businesses,
I speak of tourism,
I speak of important international gatherings as were in a recent past the Paris or Beijing Olympics!
I speak of learning our respective languages and cultures.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the turbulent and difficult times we are going through, these are our three essential and common responsibilities 
Where there’s mutual respect a dynamic compromise is always possible.
Where there’s no respect there is only room for power struggle. 
Respect of multilateralism rules, of all multilateralism rules.
Respect of China and the Chinese people.
Our mindset as Europeans is to work on the basis of respect but everybody need to understand that we Europeans will define and act upon our strategic interests independently, against nobody but for ourselves and the European people. 
I am confident that this mindset and this approach will surprise no one in the Great country of China.

Many thanks for your attention.