Next EU-China Summit To Focus On Investment, Environment, Africa - Merkel

Next EU-China Summit to Focus on Investment, Environment, Africa - Merkel

The European Union-China summit, which Germany's Leipzig will host in September, will focus on an investment protection agreement, environment safety and relations with Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2020) The European Union-China summit, which Germany's Leipzig will host in September, will focus on an investment protection agreement, environment safety and relations with Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

In her address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Merkel said that the EU did not currently have a common policy on China, although all the member states were negotiating and doing trade with Beijing. According to the chancellor, the upcoming summit, in which all the 27 EU nations are set to participate for the first time ever, may help develop a common stand.

"We have been working on an investment protection agreement since 2013. I can only hope we will manage to finalize the work by the end of 2020. However, there are no guarantees we will succeed in this," Merkel said, adding that the agreement would be discussed at the Leipzig summit.

Environment protection will be the second central topic, Merkel said. She expressed the belief that this would be a "great chance" for Europe, since China's emissions trading system could be combined with Europe's cap-and-trade system.

The summit will also focus on China's and EU's relations with other countries, mainly Africa, Merkel added.

Since 1998, the EU-China summits are held annually to discuss both political and economic relations, and global matters.