Reshaping the EU post-covid: towards a new EU-China relationship?

The Reshaping the EU post-covid series brings together policymakers, experts and decision-makers from across Europe to discuss how Brussels and EU member states are grappling with diverging pressures and expected responses to covid-19, and what these developments will mean for businesses and investors in the medium to long term.

The unexpected health crisis has placed EU capitals under pressure to build recovery plans that will swiftly restart economies. The outlook in the medium term, however, points to an uneven recovery across the bloc. To what extent the current negotiations on the EU’s 2021-27 budget (the Multiannual Financial Framework) and recovery fund will effectively answer these issues remains to be seen and will be explored during this series. The EU institutions will also have to rethink their push for the twin transition - to a green and digital economy - given countries’ focus on tackling the economic impact of the pandemic.

This September 2020, we were joined by Arancha González Laya, Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. In a discussion with Peter Mandelson, Chairman at Global Counsel, the minister shared her views on the relationship between the EU and China amid the pandemic, as well as Spain’s perspective on the agreement reached by EU leaders on the bloc’s long-term budget and recovery fund.