Economy

The G7 administrations make use of injections of credit into economy and this is a latent and constant tendency inasmuch as world economy cannot overcome the crisis. And they constitute the fundamental strategy of the USA and the states that dominate in capitalist world economy to palliate the crisis.

POREEN aims at increasing the availability of interdisciplinary studies providing a comprehensive overview (technical, legal and economic) of Europe-China relations.

The project focuses particularly on the renewable energy and the environmental sectors in order to support the development of a more rapid, sustainable and flexible industry in these fields.

Economic research area - title: “FDI and trade flows in the renewable energies and environmental industries”

The research aims to expand and deepening the knowledge of trade and foreign direct investments flows between Europe and China in the renewable energies and environmental industries so as to define/suggest:

• the priority sectors that should be targeted to stimulate Europe-China trade and investment flows;

• the obstacles, barriers and difficulties faced by European firms in initiating, maintaining and consolidating both trade and investment initiatives in China;

• the obstacles, barriers and difficulties encountered by Chinese companies investing in Europe

Engineering research area - title: “Cooperation in the mobility and building sectors”

Engineering research activity is focused on two main research areas, both related to energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction:

• mobility and the transportation sector;

• low carbon buildings.

The research intends to analyze the state of the art and to propose a model addressing economical, legal and technical issues which need to be faced to ensure the introduction on the Chinese market of alternative fuels and low carbon technologies and instruments in the building sector, so as to identify concrete partnering opportunities for the European industry

Legal research area - title: “The legal perspective on Europe-China trade and FDI relations” .

Critical legal issues, normative gaps and potentialities in Europe-China trade and FDI relations will be examined by researchers, who will specifically focus on:

• oil and gas offshore and renewable energy;

• environmental and labor standards and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues.

The researchers will make use of their knowledge in international law, EU law, International investment and trade law, commercial law, environmental law and CSR. Their perspective will take into consideration both the European investment and cooperation projects in China and the main Chinese investment initiatives in Europe.

The research intends to actively contribute to promoting cooperation between Europe and China, particularly in the context of the recent financial crisis. The legal analysis is supported and enriched by the economic and engineering perspectives. The economic analysis is necessary to give the regulatory and legal research a quantitative perspective as well as data and information to perform the legal/regulatory analysis. Technical knowledge is fundamental to define specific areas to underpin partnership opportunities.

Legal research area - title: “The legal perspective on Europe-China trade and FDI relations”

1) As far as oil and gas offshore and renewable energy are concerned, the analysis moves from the assumption that in the coming decades, consumption of energy will increase substantially. It is an issue of paramount importance for the oil and gas importing countries such as China.

Therefore a) the identification of new energy resources; b) the development of renewable energy sources and c) the integration of energy efficient products and services will assume a central importance. Nowadays, China is investing in all fields. In particular, it leads exploitation activities of offshore oil resources with the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), in cooperation with foreign multinational companies operating in the extractive sector. From a legal standpoint, this WP deals with the most controversial aspects of the discipline of international energy sector. Particular attention is paid to the WTO legal framework, whose rules, although partially inadequate, are applied to products and energy services. In order to facilitate the development of China-EU cooperation, the WP will also deepen understanding of international and EU rules on investments. The relevant Chinese laws on cooperation with private investors in the exploitation of offshore resources or legislation relating to marine and environmental protection will be studied, as well as the rules governing intellectual property rights related to technological development. Finally methods for peaceful settlement of disputes arising from the activities concerned will be analyzed.

2) As far as the antidumping regulation is concerned, it refers to the legal framework enabling retaliation against the strategy by which commercial property is exported at prices below the price normally charged by the producer in the home market. Dumping is a business practice that distorts the normal market balance and can cause significant damage to domestic industries. The field is regulated at international level by the WTO Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of GATT, which lays down the framework for anti-dumping legislation. The agreement does not expressly prohibit dumping, but it aims to remove the distortion. For the European market, the area is within the exclusive competence of the EU. The WP aims at analyzing the Chinese and the European Union anti-dumping legislation as well as relevant disputes between the EU and China, specifically in the biofuel sector, in order to examine the potentials and the limits of the current legislations and its grey areas.

Task 3.1 Oil and gas offshore and renewable energy
The first research activity is carried out through different steps aiming at: collecting of the relevant legal material; identify the international legal instruments involved in the regulation of the topic; analyze the international, European and domestic relevant case-laws. At the end of the research activity, the categorization and storage of the material collected takes place, as well as the dissemination of results obtained.

3.2 Anti-dumping

The second research activity follows the same methodological phases. The first one is related to the collection of the relevant legal material and to the identification of the international legal instruments involved in the regulation of the topic. Then the international, European and domestic relevant case-laws are examined. At the end of the research activity, the categorization and storage of the material collected takes place, as well as the dissemination of results obtained.

3.3 Environmental and labor standards and corporate social responsibility (CSR)

The third research line is focused on environmental and labor standards and CSR. Collection of the relevant legal material is followed by the identification of the international legal instruments involved in the regulation of the topic. Then the international, European and domestic relevant case-laws are examined. The research activity ends with the categorization and storage of the material collected takes place, as well as with the dissemination of results obtained.

3.4 Integration of the results with economic and engineering studies, and definition of policy and legal implications of the findings.

LIBEAC - LIBERALISM IN BETWEEN EUROPE AND CHINA

The LIBEAC project is among the few elite projects selected by the Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Commission inside the Seventh Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP7-PCRD).

Inside the 2007-2013 50 billion euros FP7-PCRD, LIBEAC belongs to the category PEOPLE-IRSES project.

This International Research Staff Exchange Scheme aims at improving international mobility of researchers among the world and especially between European countries and Third Countries partners in order to foster the emergence of multidisciplinary and multicultural research network.

This 588,000.00 IRSES project called LIBEAC officially started the 1st January 2013 and will finish the 31th December 2016.

PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since their inception in 1998 in London to the most recent meeting in Brussels in October 2010, EU-China Summits demonstrate the importance of European and Chinese partnerships based on mutual understanding and joint efforts to overcome global problems ranging from ecological risks to economic crisis to social inequalities.

Reflecting on the issues of EU-China relationships, the project “Liberalism In Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) aims at developing a new understanding of liberalism in its economic, political and social dimensions.

It involves a comparative analysis of the cultural differences in its interpretation and of the political discrepancies in its enforcement, in particular with respect to economic, social and environmental rights in China and Europe in Modern times. It is a multidisciplinary project based on a comparative study of European and Chinese political philosophy and political economy, legal practice and philosophy of right.

PROJECT RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Liberalism has, since earlier than the Enlightenment, implied at least the following two components: a component of economics and one of politics. Economic liberalism (at least in some of its most representative brands) assumes that the less the economy is controlled by the state, the more efficient auto-regulated free markets can be in terms of production and distribution of goods. Political liberalism, again at least most generally, assumes that the more citizens are free from control by the state, the more creative, responsible and auto-disciplined those free individuals can be in terms of production and diffusion of ideas and innovation.

Economic liberalism may therefore, under given circumstances, equate to “Capitalism”; Political Liberalism may, also under given circumstances,equate to “Democracy”.

Inasmuch as some regard Liberalism as indeed being a Western Ideology, some structural correlation is often assumed between Economic Liberalism and Political Liberalism, as well as between Capitalism and Democracy: it goes at a par with the assumption that the more developed the economy in one country, the freer the persons living in this country. Now, does Liberalism truly work as a Western Ideology? And, in any case, is this correlation stable, in particular in the case of non-Western economies? Japan has been the first example, in the Meiji times, to face this dilemma. South Korea and Taiwan followed. And China is the most significant example in our times. If Liberalism works both at the level of expected economic welfare for the people and of political rights that it endows people with, shall we expect to observe such correlation in China as well? Is China an exception to the general “rule”, regarding its peculiar cultural background (notably its Confucian heritage) or is China a counter-example demonstrating that there is nothing as such a Rule, i.e. that the correlation between economic and social liberty purported by Liberalism is merely a matter of belief?

That dual line of thought ends up equating Liberty to Creativity both in economic (scientific discoveries leading to technological innovations and leadership assumed by free entrepreneurs) and in political terms (the “rule of law” in an open society). Yet, a major economic, social and environmental issue emerges *in the face of the inequalities that Liberalism also seems to inevitably generate.* It may thus be possible and/or useful to distinguish between a Liberalism of expected welfare (on the economic side) and a Liberalism of civil and political liberties and rights on the political side. As we differentiate those, tension surfaces which is intrinsic to what some name the ‘Western Ideology of Liberalism’. This project tests this upon the course of past and present history in between Europe and China, as the European Union seeks to shape a new understanding of that relationship for the future.

PROJECT TRENDS

The project stands at the confluence of two major issues for the European Union, in terms of internal policies as well as external actions:

1) the position and role of the European Union in the World and
2) the present and future of Human Rights.

The first issue, on liberal civil society and the various types of market-enhanced economies, brings concerns such as the World Trade Organization put forth recently when rebuking China’s application to be reckoned as a “market economy”. It relates to the new partnerships that the European Union is building with China in the globalized World and in the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis. Our project is comparative as it focuses both on relationships between the European Union and China in particular, and accommodates viewpoints from China’s neighbor Japan.

The second issue, involving the present enforcement and future potential implementation and/or revision of Human Rights concepts, is addressed by focusing principally on the political, legal and economic aspects of the concept of Liberalism, regarded as made of several traditions, from social liberalism to liberal theories of economics. The project thus aims at disclosing cultural and political differences in terms of interpretation and of enforcement of “Liberalism” in Europe and in China today. We discuss in detail theories called “liberal”, building conceptual tools and types of criterion useful for that comparison.

Discussing those issues is all the more urgent that the recent global economic crisis has enhanced earlier temptations, on both sides of the Atlantic, to incriminate third parties. Globalization is often identified as the culprit for allowing competitive Asian companies to slow down European growth and for having created unemployment in Europe while Chinese counterparts affirm that European social benefits are responsible for European debt crisis and need a severe readjustment. Both the European Union and China will benefit from a better understanding of each other and from revising some of their mutual assumptions. New economic, political and juridical realities call for such an assessment, provided that the adequate evaluating criteria are presented.

WORK PACKAGE TITLE: LEGAL ASPECTS OF LIBERALISM

Work package n°4 | Start month: 4 | End month: 44

Objectives

To define the interactions between the implementation of the rule of law and economic development
To survey the enforcement of social, labor and civil rights in China in the frame of China’s participation to WTO
To propose a comparative study of Environmental Rights in Europe and China and their connection to Human Rights in the context of globalization

Description of the Work

Task 4.1 Rule of Law and Rule by Law in China and Europe: the research aims to assess the differences in the perception of law in China and Europe. Through a comparative study of the history of law, the cultural implications of the Confucian and Aristotelian traditions for the current elaboration of law will be addressed. The consequences of such conceptual differences will be assessed regarding the problem of the definition of the Rule of Law in international organizations.

T.4.2 China’s integration to the WTO: liberalization of economy and good governance: the research aims to define the opportunities and challenges of China’s accession to the WTO. While China’s accession to the WTO is a condition for WTO rules universalization, it could also change the rules and role of WTO itself. Integrating a market with strong structural, behavioral and cultural constraints such China raised numerous questions. The challenges of the real implementation of WTO provisions throughout the territory of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) must be assessed to evaluate China’s WTO compliance and China’s TRIPs (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) compliance.

T.4.3. The Good Governance perspective will be also part of our analysis. The good governance could be a term of reference to rebalance the excessive risks of liberalization of the economy. It can gain even more importance and be seen under a new light in such a time of economical crisis.  The concept of good governance is part of the broader meaning of non-trade concerns (such as sustainable development, cultural rights, labour rights, public health, social welfare, national security, food safety, access to knowledge, consumer interests and animal welfare). Good Governance in particular is important when we refer to the general stability of the markets, to good faith and other key principles which are at the roots to build up a fair market in favour of both the governments and the citizens.