EU-China Urbanization Partnership High Level Conference held in Belgium

Town.gov.cn, Brussel, May 3 EU-China Urbanization Partnership High Level Conference was held at the Royal Theater of Brussel, capital of Belgium at 9:00 a.m. local time of May 3 (15:00 Beijing Time of May 3).

Li Keqiang, Vice Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, Joaquín Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission, Mercedes Bresson, President of the Committee of the Regions of the EU, Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee, and Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony was jointly chaired by Xu Xianping, Vice Minister General of the NDRC, and Philip Lowe, Director-General for Energy, European Commission.

After the opening ceremony, communications and discussions were conducted centering on two topics, namely sustainable urban planning and urban infrastructure construction & mobility. Guo Jinlong, Mayor of Beijing, David O'Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer of the European External Action Service, Zhang Lijun, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection of China, Ilmar Reepalu, Mayor of Malmo, Xu Qin, Mayor of Shenzhen, China, and Gérard Magnin, Executive Director of Energy Cities, gave speeches at the discussion regarding sustainable urban planning. Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China, Jan Olbrycht MEP, Chairman of European Parliament's Sub Committee on Cities, Gao Jian, Vice President of China Development Bank, Eckart Würzner, Mayor of Heidelberg, Germany, Ge Honglin, Mayor of Chengdu, Javier Maroto Aranzábal, Mayor of Victoria, Spain, and Zhang Jianfei, Mayor of Changsha, made speeches at the discussion regarding urban infrastructure construction and mobility.

Li Tie, Director General of China Center for Urban Development of the NDRC, Giles Merritt, Secretary-General of the Friends of Europe, and Shada Islam, Director of the Policy Center of the Friends of Europe, jointly chaired the discussions.

The China-EU Urbanization Partnership High Level Conference was a major move to implement the China-EU Leaders’ Meeting Joint Press Communiqué and jointly held by both parties. The Chinese sponsor was the NDRC, and the European sponsor was European Commission. The Chinese co-sponsors included China’s Mission to the EU, China’s Embassy in Belgium and China Center for Urban Development; The European co-sponsors included the Committee of the Regions of the EU, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Friends of Europe.

With the theme being “Communications & Reference, Mutual Benefits & Win-win Results”, the conference was aimed to offer an opportunity for all-round communications on how to advance the construction of China-EU Urbanization Partnership and achieve sustainable urban development.