MERICS EU-China Opinion Pool: Recalibrating EU’s China policy

The European Council will discuss the approach to China at its 2-day summit on June 29/30. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has put forward her agenda for de-risking relations with China, while Germany is finalizing its long-awaited China strategy. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Beijing, expressing interest in reopening relations after COVID, while several Central and Eastern European member states have been reassessing their stance on China in view of Beijing’s continued support for Moscow despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In this round of MERICS’ EU-China opinion pool, MERICS Analyst Grzegorz Stec asked several experts: “As the EU recalibrates its China policy, what needs to change?” Among the experts were:

• François Godement, Special Advisor and Resident Senior Fellow - Asia and America at Institute Montaigne
• Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Chief economist for the Asia pacific at NATIXIS and Senior Fellow at Bruegel
• Björn Jerdén, Director of the Swedish National China Centre
• Una Bērziņa-Čerenkova, Head of the Asia program at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs, European China Policy Fellow at MERICS
• François Chimits, Analyst, MERICS
• Francesca Ghiretti, Analyst, MERICS

Read the complete opinion pool on the MERICS website here