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By Benita Ferrero-Waldner

As we look forward to the Year of the Pig, we are all hoping for good things: greater prosperity for ourselves and for others, peace in the world, progress in tackling the challenges that face us.

I believe that this will indeed be an important year, but I believe that we have a responsibility to make our own good fortune. The factors that govern the well-being of people across the world trade, security, climate change, energy security are not matters of luck. We have to be proactive.

This week I am visiting Beijing to launch negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and China an agreement that I believe will contribute to a better future for millions of people.

Together the EU and China make up almost one third of the people on the planet. When we act together it has an impact not only on our own bilateral relationship but on the wider world.

We are building a strategic partnership that already has a strong base: Europe is China's biggest trading partner. We are both committed to strong and effective multilateral institutions. We both recognize the need for a coordinated response to global challenges like climate change.

Two emerging giants

And we are both emerging giants. China is changing before our eyes, almost literally. Spectacular economic growth has been harnessed to raise more people out of poverty more rapidly than ever before. The European Union is growing in size and in its capacity to act on the world stage. We are both gaining in influence and responsibility. And the truth is that whether we are talking about international challenges like nuclear proliferation, or the environment, or fair trade, neither of us will fully realize our objectives without a firm and effective partnership with the other.

Why do we need a new agreement between the EU and China just now? Because the existing agreement has simply not kept pace with our rapidly expanding partnership. Two decades ago we signed a Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement which provided a good basis for us to build on. But the tentative trade relations of the 1980s bear little resemblance to the extensive and complex relationship of the 21st century.

The context in which we relate to each other has also moved on. We face global challenges which do not respect international borders. China's growing economic muscle means that more often than not its challenges have global implications.

It is more essential than ever that we assume our shared responsibilities: to ensure that world trade operates with fair competition; to tackle climate change and work for energy security; to use our wealth wisely to help others develop, particularly in Africa.

This is why it is so important that we optimize the potential of our strategic partnership through the negotiations that I am launching this week.

In addition to trade, the agreement will provide a comprehensive framework for the 22 sectors in which the EU and China already hold dialogues, including energy, the environment, agriculture, transport, customs, education, the information society, science and technology, and space cooperation. It will cover other key issues such as migration, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

Ambitious partnership

This new agreement will lay the foundations for a still more ambitious and mature partnership.

There will be a range of complex issues to be discussed as part of the negotiation process: political, cultural and technical. And we have to consider whether and how aspects of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement should be updated. Of course there will be moments when we disagree, but we are impatient to get down to work with our Chinese counterparts in a positive spirit of cooperation.

I am optimistic that we will make real progress, and that the steering committee which will coordinate the negotiations will have initial practical results to report back to the next EU-China Summit later this year.

In 2007 we are setting out to intensify one of the world's most important partnerships. The negotiations we launch this week are one of the most important items on the European Union's agenda and, I trust, on China's. Together the EU and China can do more to reach their objectives and promote their interests than they ever would be able to achieve apart.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner is the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy.

(China Daily January 17, 2007)