China is rapidly integrating into the international system, but is still a new player in global governance. The EU and its member states, in contrast, have rich experience in global governance. While general literature on China’s growing international importance is abundant, there is still only a limited understanding of the motivations, targets and limitations driving China’s participation in global governance. We chose four global governance areas as key research areas, namely climate change, energy, trade, and development because they are global issues of particular concern for both Europe and China. Starting from a multi-level understanding of global governance, the projects’ research in China included the following aspects:

(1) Summary of the domestic and global challenges China and Europe face in the four mentioned areas;

(2) Analyses of key governance aspects such as interests, policies, rules and regulations and how they influence China’s role in global governance related to the four topics. Thereby we took the role of public and private actors at the national and local level into account;

(3) Analysis of European experience in influencing and shaping global governance structures and issues.

We intended to create a better understanding of the linkages between the different governance levels in order to identify commonalities and differences and to analyze their impact on global governance issues as well as possibilities of better cooperation between China and the EU in global governance.

First Results:
On June 7 and 8, 2010 the first mid-term workshop was held in Brighton; for details see protocol of the workshop.