Cooperation between the European Union (EU) and China boasts broad prospects due to challenges facing both sides in at least four spheres, Pierre Caleb, founder of the China-Europe Forum, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Speaking ahead of the Asia-Europe Meeting (AHEM) scheduled for October 24-25 in Beijing, Caleb said China and the EU had singled out four common challenges after two sessions of the China-Europe Forum in 2005 and 2007.

First, he said, both China and Europe will face the transformation of development modes.

In Europe, people are pursuing the goal of "sustainable development", while China is striving for a "harmonious society". Although the two modes are not exactly the same, their essentials are alike: both sides seek new development modes, which will take a long and arduous process of exploration.

Secondly, both sides will encounter a belief crisis or ethics crisis, said Caleb, also chairman of the Paris-based Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind.

It remains a big question as to how to respect the traditional values during the march toward modernization, and how to safeguard traditional social characteristics while opening up to the outside world, he said.

The third challenge is how to run society, said Calame.

Society administration needs a brand-new type of participation by all people, only through which a more comprehensive and more effective solution could be found to complicated issues such as water, energy, health care, education, environmental protection and bio-diversity.

The international status of both sides poses the fourth common challenge to China and the EU, according to Calame.

With the ever increasing power and rising international standing, China and the EU will certainly have more dialogue and cooperation so as to join hands for a new multilateral international system and higher efficiency and democratization in the administration of global affairs.

Calame said the challenges meant new opportunities of cooperation for both sides.

For example, he said, both sides could make feasible proposals on an industrial production chain of sustainable development, which is crucial for sustainable development of the whole society or the building of a harmonious society.

China and the EU can also cooperate in climate change and environmental protection, he added.

Calame said there were great potentials for cooperation in culture and education as well for both sides that could learn from each other when making adjustments to their education systems to meet the needs of the 21st century.

To safeguard world peace provides another great opportunity of cooperation for China and the EU, he said.

Calame said that a partnership of cooperation on equal footing would be the cornerstone of future Sino-EU relations, adding the ties, featured in strategic partnership, is crucial for international order.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2008)