The Belt and Road Initiative between China and the EU

The European Union (EU) and China are meeting similar problems, although at different levels and for different causes: slowing growth rates, financial unbalances, unsatisfactory domestic markets, demographic crisis, sustainability of welfare systems, importance of innovation strategies, low competitiveness of part of enterprises, inequalities and regional differences. In both areas, exports have an outstanding role in growth strategies and current account balances are in surplus. Other problems and situations are different, in particular the growth rate and working time of China are still high, albeit slowing down, while wellbeing in Europe is among the highest in the world but waning in part of the Union. Further differences are in the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and in economic specialization. The next Section 2 outlines the fundamental reasons for cooperation between the European Union and China to mutual advantage. Section 3 looks at BRI and concludes that China and the EU have both common interests to cooperate and important diversities that call for prudence and negotiations. Section 4 oncludes.