China and the EU held a two-day financial working group meeting and financial institution roundtable in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, engaging in extensive discussions on issues including market access optimization and pledging to deepen cooperation in key areas, an official statement said.
According to a statement released by the People's Bank of China (PBC) on Wednesday, PBC Deputy Governor Xuan Changneng and John Berrigan, Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union at the European Commission, co-chaired the two-day meeting.The meeting featured in-depth exchanges on topics including global economic uncertainty, the macroeconomic and financial stability conditions in China and the EU, and regulatory frameworks for the banking and insurance sectors, per the statement.Constructive discussions were also held on emerging areas of cooperation, such as sustainable finance, cross-border data flows and the development of cross-border payment systems.Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in key areas and promote the implementation of substantive outcomes, and they vowed to establish a regular communication mechanism to advance China-EU financial cooperation toward broader and deeper dimensions, according to the statement.Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, highlighted the critical role of strengthened financial cooperation between China and the EU, two major world economies, in stabilizing the world' s financial and economic landscape, amid rising global economic uncertainty."With the internationalization of the yuan and the evolution of the euro, closer coordination between China and the EU in financial and monetary policy has become imperative," Cui said, noting that the latest discussions indicate that bilateral cooperation has expanded beyond traditional finance to encompass social policy areas such as insurance and pensions.As a key follow-up to the 10th China-EU High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue, the China-EU financial working group has become an important platform for pragmatic financial cooperation since its inaugural meeting in Beijing in 2024.During the two-day meeting, both parties highly commended the positive achievements of the working group since its establishment, agreeing that it serves as a vital channel for financial policy communication and a key platform for addressing practical issues.Alongside the working group meeting, the China-EU Financial Institution Roundtable was held concurrently, where participants discussed emerging topics such as financial digital transformation and fintech innovation. They also exchanged views on specific concerns, including optimizing market access and promoting business innovation, the PBC statement said.China and the EU possess vast potential for collaboration in emerging financial sectors like the digital economy and e-commerce, Cui noted.
