The European Union and China vowed to boost their cooperation Wednesday at a summit in Brussels, but failed to narrow the gap over key issues such as China's currency policy and the EU's reluctance to award the Asian giant market economy status. The EU sees China as a potential strategic partner in Asia, and is eager to boost its influence in Beijing, while China sees the EU as a major market and a source of modern technologies, according to dpa. "The EU and China have commonalities but also differences of approach. This should not impede our joint will to bring the relationship to a higher level," EU president Herman Van Rompuy and EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said after the talks. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that the summit, the thirteenth of its kind, should have moved to make progress on concrete problems. "Between China and the EU, there is still a number of major issues that have been unresolved for a long period of time. This is not in keeping with the fundamental interests of both sides," he said in an opening statement broadcast from the summit room.
