On September 24, 2002, Premier Zhu Rongji held the Fifth China-EU Summit with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is also the rotary chair of the European Union, and President Romano Prodi of the European Commission (EC) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Zhu said that we are happy to note the implementation of the consensus reached between the two sides during last year's summit, and the continuous enrichment of the content of China-EU overall partnership. There have been active political dialogue and consultation between China and the EU, with sound coordination and cooperation in international and regional affairs within the United Nations and the Asia-Europe Meeting along with more consensus on major international and regional issues. To continuously enhance bilateral relations conforms to their common interest and it is a necessary choice to cater for the changes in the situation. China will continue to make efforts to enhance China-EU cooperation.

Expressing his satisfaction with the development of bilateral economic and trade relations, Zhu said China also hopes the EU can be China's top trade partner as Prodi said and will make joint efforts to this end. He pointed out that to properly handle problems, which may arise from bilateral economic and trade relations, is crucial to furthering bilateral cooperation. He said he hoped that the European side can continue its cooperative, practical and constructive attitude, change its discriminative anti-dumping policies, completely lift its ban on importing China's animal-related products at an early date, and give China a complete market economy status in line with the World Trade Organization rules, especially the non-discrimination rules.

Rasmussen said the EU-China relations at present are good, and the EU takes China as an important cooperative partner with bilateral dialogue and cooperation in various fields expanding. He said he hoped that bilateral dialogues on regional and security issues can be further enhanced.

Prodi, for his part, stressed that bilateral trade relations are very important, and China is expected to become EU's most important trade partner in the world. The EU's expansion in the future will positively promote the development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

The EU side hopes that China can continue to increase Euro reserves, believing that some problems in bilateral economic and trade relations will be solved properly.

After the meeting, Premier Zhu Rongji, Prime Minister Rasmussen and President Prodi jointly attended the press conference of the China-EU Summit, and took questions from the press.

On the same night, Premier Zhu Rongji attended the welcoming banquet hosted by Prime Minister Rasmussen for his visit to Denmark and attending of the Fifth China-EU Summit.