The EU released a memorandum,“Culture in a Globalizing World”in May,
2007, which elevated the“EU cultural policy”to a new stage. According to this
memorandum, during the process of European integration, the EU had increasingly
realized its unique role in promoting cultural richness and diversity in Europe and in
the world, and it had also recognized that culture was indispensable for achieving
the goals of European prosperity, solidarity and safety as well as ensuring a greater
role for the EU in the international arena. Therefore, the EU decided to take cultural
promotion as an important factor for advancing the EU’s international relations.^3
Even if these positions were conceptual, undoubtedly, more legitimacy was secured
for boosting the cultural relations between China and the EU.
On December 13, 2007, the leaders of the EU member states signed theTreaty of
Lisbonwhich came into force on December 1, 2009. The institutional obstacles in
the EU’s efforts to push forward China-EU cultural exchange activities were
gradually removed during the transition period. One of the major issues on
China-EU cultural exchanges was the lack of reciprocity. From China’s perspective,
if Chinese government permits another country to launch a cultural event in China,
vice versa, the same country is supposed to allow China to do the same. However,
given the EU is not a sovereign nation, China cannot carry out cultural activities in
“the EU”but in its member states designated by the EU. Since China has developed
bilateral cultural partnership with most of the EU member states, the China-EU
cultural exchange activities at the EU level can only be jointly implemented by
China and the EU member states under the coordination of the EU. These kinds of
activities gradually increased from 2006 to 2009. In November, 2008, the
Delegation of the European Union to China and the Ambassador of France in China
given France held the rotating EU presidency at that time, jointly hosted thefirst
China-EU Film Festival, participated by the Institute Français, the Spanish
Cervantes Institute and the Cultural Office of the Italian Embassy, etc. From May
21 – 25, 2009, the Euro-China Centre for Leadership and Responsibility (ECCLAR)
held the fourth China-EU manager exchange program, in which 59 Chinese man-
agers and 46 European managers receivedfive-day cross-cultural training. From
May 27 to June 9, 2009, the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with
Foreign Countries, the International Institute of Chinese Studies at the Beijing
Foreign Studies University, the Information Office of the Shandong Provincial
Government, the Liaoning Song & Dance Troupe, the German Nuremberg
Municipal Government, the Confucius Institute at the University of
Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Confucius Institute at Eötvös Loránd University, and the
Confucius Institute at the University of Vienna, co-organized several events in
Hungary, Austria and Germany. As increasing number of China-EU cultural
exchange activities were organized and coordinated by the EU with participation of
many member states, the timing was ripe for enhancing China-EU cultural
exchanges at the EU level. One of the highlighted cultural events during this period
with China at the EU level was the China-EU Cultural Dialogue co-hosted by the
(^3) EU,“European Agenda for Culture in a Globalizing World,”EU SEC (2007) 570.
4 “Cultural Exchanges”as a Pillar to the China-EU Relations 97