On the afternoon of October 21, 2011, Premier Wen Jiabao held an emergency phone conversation with European Council President Van Rompuy.

The 14th China-EU summit that was originally slated for next week will be postponed. In the phone conversation, Van Rompuy said he could not travel to China next week since he and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso need to attend a series of EU meetings at the weekend over the eurozone debt crisis, which is at its crucial moment. He apologized to Premier Wen for the inconvenience that the postponement of the summit could bring to the Chinese side. Van Rompuy said the EU pays high attention to cooperation with China and thanked China for its long-time support. He said the EU is ready to strengthen communication and coordination with China to cope with challenges together and push forward EU-China ties.

For his part, Wen expressed understanding to the EU side's decision to postpone the summit. Wen said the eurozone debt crisis is not just closely related to the unstable recovery of the global economy against the backdrop of the international financial crisis, but also is a result of long-term accumulation of internal problems within the EU and the euro zone. Wen suggested fundamental financial reforms in addition to emergency bailout measures, which require extraordinary political courage and determination, as well as consensus of all parties. The most important thing right now is to adopt decisive measures to prevent the debt crisis to spill over and avoid the turbulence of the euro, the shrinking of the market and a serious economic recession, Wen said. He said he has noticed the strong political will of European political leaders and hopes the EU side will turn political will into effective actions to maintain stability of the euro and the European financial situation and boost confidence in the European market, which is in line with the interests of all parties. The Chinese premier also highlighted the significance of international cooperation in the global financial and debt crisis, saying that China supports EU's efforts to cope with the crisis and stands ready to beef up coordination and cooperation with the EU to contribute to a global economic recovery.

The two sides agreed to keep contact on the new arrangements of the 14th China-EU summit.