The European Union and China hoped to mend fences at their summit in Prague, but deadlocked on virtually every major point of disagreement and wound up issuing a vague statement that they would continue to work together – without saying how – to fight climate change, the world’s financial crisis and diminishing trade, but remained at odds over human rights, China’s record of theft of intellectual property, and most political matters.

The meeting was meant to highlight reconciliation, but the sides failed to agree on common language on any of the key points dividing them, failing to bridge differences on areas that included Myanmar, North Korea, Taiwan, climate change, trade liberalisation and minority rights. China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao asked the EU to expand “practical cooperation” instead of pushing China into changing its positions on international as well as internal issues. “The most important thing is to stick to the principles of mutual respect and not interfere in each others internal affairs,” the Chinese premier told a news conference after the summit.

He also called on the 27- member bloc “to ensure that our bilateral relationship will not be adversely affected by individual incidents.” China delayed the annual summit, originally planned to take place on December 1, 2008 in the French city of Lyon, for five months to protest a meeting by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, then the holder of the EU presidency, with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Ahead of the summit, each side had proposed a lengthy draft of their common position, which showed “significant differences” on the controversial topics, diplomats close to the preparations said.

In two hours of talks, EU leaders and the Chinese premier failed to overcome those variances. And while the EU’s draft stretched to 10 pages and the Chinese to seven, the two sides issued a one-page joint statement, in which they boiled down chapters on problem areas to one vague paragraph. The EU failed to persuade China to put pressure on Myanmar’s military junta to start talks with prodemocracy forces and release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been on trial for allegedly breaching the terms of her six-year detention. Contrary to the EU’s wishes, the summit also failed to condemn North Korea’s April 5 missile test and urge it to resume international talks on halting its nuclear programme, as China brushed aside all EU requests.

A SCHISM

Regarding Tibet, the bloc wanted China to commit to “freedom of speech and the rights of ethnic minorities,” a wording China would not accept. The two sides also could not agree on their approach to global warming in the run-up to a United Nations conference to be held in December in Copenhagen, which should produce a global deal on curbing the climate change to be in force from 2013. While China wanted the EU to urge developed countries to help the developing ones with cutting emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, the bloc wanted China to “step up its efforts” to tackle global warming.

“All the major economies have now to put their position on the table. ... I am sure that China will also engage fully,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said later, trying to put a good face on the failed talks. Beijing was unsuccessful in persuading the EU to quickly recognise China as a “full market economy,” a step which would carry wide benefits for trade and investment in the country. “We hope that the EU will recognise China’s market economy status and lift its arms embargo against China as early as possible,” the Chinese premier said.

The list of disagreements was a lot longer than any attempts at agreement as the EU and China have widely-varying points of view on human rights record, Beijing’s policies towards Sudan’s Darfur region and Myanmar. A spate of trade squabbles have also rankled relations between the two major trading powers and China essentially told the EU to butt out of its affairs. It’s only because of the worldwide recession that the two sides came back to the table because EU consumer demand for Chinese goods, which critics maintain are shoddy and sometimes even dangerous, have begun to decline, leaving China without its second biggest trading market outside the United States. But without any agreements, the two sides were left to issue platitudinous statements that revealed nothing.

“During the summit we exchanged views on how to tackle the international financial crisis ... we both recognise that it is important for us to work together, to ride out the storm and make our contribution to an early world economic recovery,” Wen told a news conference. “It is impossible for a couple of countries or group of big powers to resolve all global issues. Multipolarity or multilateralism represent the larger trend. Some say that world affairs will be managed solely by China and the United States. I think that view is baseless and wrong.”

MONEY IN THE BALANCE

As usual, the real talks were about money and there’s a lot of it when it comes to EU-China trade. EU exports to China rose to 78 billion Euro in 2008 from 26 billion Euro in 2000, while imports from China rose from 75 billion Euro to 248 billion Euro over the same period, representing nearly onethird of a trillion Euro that keeps them talking, even with inseparable political differences.

But Wen said that he had traveled 10 hours to the Czech capital for a two-hour summit and was returning straight away showed China’s commitment to wipe the slate clean with Europe. “I’ve come with sincerity, confidence and a sense of responsibility. These are words from my heart,”he said alongside Czech President Vaclav Klaus - whose country holds the EU presidency - and Barroso.

Only three memorandums of understanding covering small and medium size business, science and clean energy were signed by the leaders, who sparred on a number of key issues such as trade, human rights and notably climate change.

GLOBAL COOLING

There was hope there would at least be some narrowing of the gap on fighting global warming and climate change but there was no real resolution, as China insists on being able to pollute as much as western countries have, even as it is now one of the world’s biggest emitter of carbon gases. Instead, they put off any decision until yet another meeting later in the year in Beijing, repeating a pattern of talks that reach no outcome except a decision to hold more talks.

That meeting in China will come just weeks before more talks in Copenhagen aimed at reaching a global climate deal to succeed the UN’s Kyoto protocol from 2012, giving the sides almost no time to reach a decision on a problem that has evaded an agreement for years. “Building on our Climate Change Partnership which we agreed in 2005, the EU and China can make a difference on the road to ‘seal the deal’ in Copenhagen by the end of the year,” Barroso said, without giving any details beyond hope. He urged all major economies, including China to disclose their negotiating positions before Copenhagen.