During an exclusive interview with People.cn, Charge d'affaires of the European Union delegation to China Carmen Cano says the scope of cooperation between China and EU will be extremely extensive.

According to Ms Cano, the historical visit made by President Xi to the EU headquarters is sending a very clear message – that the EU-China relationship is becoming more and more important.

"Economics and trade is the core, but not the only factor in EU-China relations," she said.

"We signed the EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation last November, which covers many areas including peace and security, prosperity, sustainable development, and people-to-people contact. In the meantime, the EU and China are political and strategic partners who also work together in addressing global issues."

In the area of urbanization, Cano says city planning in Europe generally revolves around people, which coincides with the growth of "people-oriented" ideas in China.

"European cities place great emphasis on environmental protection, green development and infrastructure construction to resolve population and traffic problems. We have some experience and we're willing to share it with China."

Cano also sees space for expanding EU-China cooperation in high-technology transfer.
"For China, the EU has become the largest source of technology transfer, while for the EU, China has become the second largest destination of technology transfer. With strengthened intellectual property protection regarding cooperation projects, more EU companies will be attracted to transfer technology to Chinese companies," she said.

In respect of people-to-people contacts, Cano says the EU expects to see more exchanges between students and scholars from both sides, and the upcoming EU-China High Level People-to-People Dialogue and the 2nd EU Online Film Festival which has just started in China will enable growth in intellectual and cultural exchanges between China and the EU.