On Monday afternoon, the leaders of the European institutions, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is the rotating president of the EU, have an appointment with China for a summit organized by video conference.

And this time, the leaders of the Old Continent want to toughen up the tone in order to obtain progress.

The Europe-China meeting was to be one of the great moments of the German presidency of the Union.

The meeting was scheduled in Leipzig, between the 27 and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

But Covid obliges, the summit has turned into a virtual meeting, with a reduced format.

The meeting remains important, four months after a first summit.

And this time, the Europeans want to establish a real balance of power, in order to move forward in particular in the negotiations on investments and trade, despite tensions in recent months.

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A victory over geographical indications

And they believe in it, in this second summit so close to the previous one.

Especially since it is Xi Jinping, the man who decides in Beijing, who takes part and not his Prime Minister.

The Europeans are hammering out that they no longer want to be naive about China.

At the June summit, they criticized the situation in Hong Kong and mentioned the Chinese cyberattacks.

This time, they are aiming for concessions on the merits of the issues. 

On Monday morning, the two parties will sign an agreement on the recognition of geographical indications.

Roquefort, Beaujolais or balsamic vinegar can no longer be copied in China.

"It's huge, it means that Beijing has accepted the European model in this area", rejoices a diplomat.

On investments, "it will take a long time yet"

But the big part remains the negotiation of the investment agreement.

It should allow European companies to work in conditions of less unfair competition in China.

"That remains very hard, it will still take a long time", recognizes a person close to the file. 

Finally, and this is important, Brussels also hopes to convince Beijing to agree to a face-to-face meeting on human rights by the end of the year.