After the seminar, and with the presence of EU Commissioner Ms. Corina Cretu and NDRC Vice Chairman Mr. HU Zucai, nine cities – 5 from China and 4 from the EU, with Prague set to join the IUC programme as the fifth EU city – signed a Joint Declaration committing them to the IUC programme and to promoting longer-term cooperation on sustainable urban development themes.

Deliberations about the EU-China Regional Policy Dialogue took place between European Union representatives (Commissioner Corina Cretu, Cabinet Member Dana Berinde, Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, DG REGIO’s Ronald Hall and Ramón López) and Chinese representatives (Ms. Huang Weibo, Deputy Director-General at NDRC, Ye Fujing from the China Mission o the EU as well as Deputy Mayors / DRC Vice-Chairmen).