Denmark will be among the leading countries on European side – together with key EU partners and the EU delegation in Beijing - in the so-called China Europe Water Platform - under the European Water Initiative beginning in 2013.
In this new partnership on water, China will benefit from Danish and European knowledge on how to protect and purify water. This is an area in which both Europe and China face a number of challenges in the coming years.
“Denmark is at the forefront when the EU cooperates with China on protecting water resources. We have a head start in this field, which among other things comes from more than 40 years of experience on protecting our water”, says Danish Minister of Environment, Ida Auken.
The partnership between the EU and China will among other things be about how to avoid floods, protect groundwater resources, handling pollution, shortage of water and administer large contiguous water areas. The Chinese side of the platform will be headed by the Ministry of Water Resources.
Denmark leads on water technology
Water technology is a Danish specialty. The area employs 35,000 people in Denmark and turns over more than €4 billion a year.
The Danish Ambassador in Beijing, Friis Arne Petersen, points out how the intention of the partnership is not only about helping China though, but also about gaining mutual benefits between Europe and China.
“This is very much an equal partnership, where we hope commercial interests as well as government and public sector knowhow in both Europe and China will benefit,” says the Ambassador.
He regards the Danish tradition for working together between the government, educational institutions and the public sector as something which can be useful in this context.
The final agreement between EU and China is to be signed at the sixth World Water Forum in Marseille in March 2012.
