Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth and Wang Xiao, President of the All-China Youth Federation (herein referred as Both sides), have declared their willingness to further strengthen cooperation between the European Commission and All-China Youth Federation of the People's Republic of China in the field of youth. They made this declaration in Brussels on 11 January 2011 at the occasion of the opening ceremony of the EU-China Year of Youth.

Both sides acknowledge the importance of investing in youth and the key role that youth plays in society. They consider that enhancing cooperation and dialogue in the youth field is instrumental to improve mutual understanding and to strengthen their respective roles within their societies and better harness the opportunities offered by globalisation. Promoting people-to-people contacts in particular those between young leaders is also a way to foster close relations between the EU and China.

Both sides recalled the intentions of the EU-China Summit Joint Statements held in Helsinki on 9th September 2006, in Beijing on 28th November 2007 and in Nanjing on 30th November 2009.

In the Helsinki Joint Statement leaders supported the expansion and deepening of exchanges between young people and encouraged cooperation between youth organizations in the EU and China. In the Beijing Joint Statement leaders agreed to speedily initiate the meeting mechanism of EU-China on youth affairs at ministerial level. In the Nanjing Joint Statement both sides agreed to further promote and deepen partnership between Europe and China by launching 2011 as the Europe-China Year of Youth.

Both sides recalled the ongoing negotiations for a more comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and China and stressed the importance of including within the Agreement specific references to youth.

With regard to the initiatives that were suggested in the 2003 Joint Declaration between Commissioner Reding and Minister Sun Jiazheng, both sides insisted on the importance of youth exchanges, transnational voluntary activities and training for youth workers.

Both sides recalled the Joint Declaration signed by Commissioner Jan Figel' and Minister Zhou Ji in October 2007 in the fields of Education and Vocational Training and the Joint Declaration on Culture signed by Commissioner Jan Figel' and Minister Sun Jiazheng as well as the Joint Declaration signed by Leonard Orban, Commissioner for Multilingualism and Minister Zhou Ji in the field of multilingualism signed in March 2009, which have led to the development of a sectoral policy dialogue in these fields. Both sides acknowledged the importance of education, vocational training, culture and multilingualism for youth.

They noted the importance of promoting the use of existing instruments, such as the EU Youth in Action Programme and the international youth exchange programmes of the All-China Youth Federation, as a means to encourage the development of the youth sector and to promote the exchange of experience and practice in the field of non-formal education between EU and Chinese youth organisations.

Taking into account these positive developments, both sides jointly declared the following intentions:

• Both sides intend to jointly support the EU-China Year of Youth in 2011, with a view to promoting intercultural dialogue, mutual understanding and friendship.
• Both sides intend to set up an EU-China sectoral policy dialogue on youth affairs.
• This policy dialogue should be held in principle once a year. To this end, senior officials from both sides should meet in principle once a year with the venue alternating between Brussels and Beijing or any other venue agreed by both sides. Other occasional meetings may be held as necessary. Both sides will jointly coordinate the meetings. Both sides should produce agreed conclusions after each meeting.
• The EU-China youth policy dialogue will cover issues of common interest such as: voluntary activities, in particular with a link to the European Year of Volunteering in 2011; youth active involvement in society; promoting healthy lifestyles among young people; youth creativity and international vision; youth employment and entrepreneurship; youth work development.
• The policy dialogue should consist of regular exchanges of experience and best practice, reviews of policy developments and challenges, and promoting knowledge building and sharing on youth-related issues of common interest. Specific events such as seminars, workshops and expert meetings may be jointly organized for the purpose of those exchanges with the participation of relevant stakeholders (including media if appropriate).
• Both sides intend to jointly set up a rolling work programme for the dialogue and cooperation on youth policy, identify priority areas and activities, regularly review its implementation and discuss avenues for future cooperation.
• Both sides will bear their own delegation's cost of participation in the dialogue and cooperation. The cost of agreed specific events will be decided in consultation between both sides.

The provisions of this Joint Declaration express political intent and are not designed to create legal rights or obligations under international law.

This Joint Declaration is signed in Brussels on the 11 January 2011 in the English language and the Chinese languages.

FOR THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION	FOR THE ALL CHINA YOUTH FEDERATION
Androulla Vassiliou Commissioner for Education,Culture, Multilingualism and Youth	Wang Xiao President

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