A joint declaration was signed by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, and Liu Yandong, Chinese State Councillor, in which the EU and China commit to strengthening contacts and exchanges between their peoples in order to deepen understanding and trust. The launched dialogue covers co-operation in education, culture, youth, research and multilingualism.

The European Union and China signed a joint declaration in which the EU and China commit to strengthening contacts and exchanges between their peoples. According to Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, the people-to-people dialogue will open up the contacts and co-operation on a wide range of issues, bringing real benefits to European and Chinese citizens.

In the framework of this cooperation, the two parties will support numerous activities under the 2012 EU-China Year of Intercultural Dialogue, a new milestone in EU-China cooperation. For instance, both sides will work together to enhance the circulation of their audiovisual works and artists. In addition, China and the EU will expand the opportunities for mobility in education, and increase the number of exchanges between students and scholars, particularly in higher education, and the two parties will increase support for exchanges and networking between their respective youth organisations. To promote language-learning, China and the EU will jointly organise a major conference on multilingualism at the end of the year.

The new EU-China High-Level People-to-People Dialogue represents a 'third pillar' in relations between the two partners, building on two previous cooperation agreements - the High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue ('first pillar') and the High-Level Strategic Dialogue ('second pillar'). The people-to-people dialogue will enjoy the same status as the other agreements and will have flexible structure with very low financial implications.