The Government of the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Chinese Side’) and the European Commission (hereinafter referred to as ‘the European Side’) affirm that:

We live in an interdependent world dominated by global opportunities and challenges. The economies and societies of China and the European Union are interlinked on an unprecedented scale in the history of our relations, and therefore we need to draw on experience from each other, strengthen interaction and cooperation, jointly seize the opportunities and cope with the challenges of the future, and strive to achieve win-win results.

The level of urbanisation in China has exceeded 50% and is in rapid development. This offers a huge development potential and market opportunities. At the same time, China faces challenges of optimising the layout and form of urbanisation, promoting the transfer of rural populations into cities, and improving the sustainability of the city.

About three quarters of the EU’s population lives in an urban context. The EU and its Member States have developed a comprehensive framework and accumulated rich experience relating to urban development, while facing challenges of energy and natural resource conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Both sides recognize that the common interests and synergy between our respective long-term economic strategies have laid a sound foundation and brought historical opportunities in tackling together the challenges of urbanisation and jointly promoting healthy urbanisation development.

Therefore, both sides declare that efforts will be stepped up centering on the China-EU Partnership on Urbanisation (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Partnership’):

1. Both sides affirm their commitment to the objectives and priorities of the Joint Communiqué of the 14th China-EU Summit and promote the smooth development of the Partnership, while implementing China’s “12th Five-Year Plan” and the “Europe 2020 Strategy”.

2. The Chinese Side appoints the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the European Side appoints Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission (DG ENER) as coordinators of the Partnership.

3. In support of the China-EU Summit, an annual China-EU Urbanisation Forum (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Forum’) will be held and the Forum will play a steering role for the Partnership. China and EU will take turns to host the Forum and deliverables of the Forum will be presented to the leaders on both sides.

4. The Partnership is aimed at tackling challenges together through cooperative efforts between stakeholders at all appropriate levels, including national, regional and local levels. The Partnership will highlight, inter alia, the following subjects:

1) Strategies and policies relevant to the development of urbanisation;

2) Spatial distribution of urbanisation;

3) Sustainable development of urban industrial economy;

4) Urban public services system;

5) Urban infrastructure investment and financing mechanisms;

6) Urban housing supply system and patterns;

7) Urban energy supply and demand management;

8) Urban mobility, public transport and smart transport;

9) Urban green buildings;

10) Urban ecological protection, environmental protection and treatment;

11) Protection of urban historical and cultural features and formation of urban landscape;

12) Urban governance;

13) Urban-rural integrated development;

14) Exchanges and discussions as well as personnel training on urbanisation development;

5. The Partnership encourages and supports existing and upcoming cooperation on, inter alia, China-EU Mayors’ Forum, EC-Link Project, China-EU Emissions Trading Scheme, China-EU Social Protection Reform Project, China-EU Disaster Risk Management Project, Satellite Cities and Metropolitan Governance Project.

6. The Partnership encourages governments and businesses on both sides to provide financial, technical and personnel support for related initiatives, promote multi-faceted exchanges and cooperation. The Partnership will put emphasis on actions undertaken by China in the field of urban development in EU Member States and actions undertaken by EU Member States in the field of urbanisation in China. The initiatives adopted by both parties to feed into the Partnership shall constitute a major contribution towards the smooth development of China-EU urbanisation cooperation.