Six Years of ʼ16+1ʼFramework of Cooperation – in Between EU, Expectations and Limitations

Abstract

In this paper we try to pursue general overview of the platform for cooperation between PR China and sixteen European countries that PRC initiated in 2012 under the name “Sixteen plus One” or “China and Central and Eastern European countries”. After five years, several prime ministers’ summits and different ways of cooperation being introduced, it left most, if not all its European participants with mixed impressions about the very experience and the prospect for the future development of the platform. Regarding the complex environment and intense dynamism and controversies surrounding the platform '16+1', we will try to analyze the achievements, problems and limitations for its future development, including its visibility and overlapping with the Belt and Road Initiative and its position within EU-China relations

Keywords

• PRC
• Central and Eastern European countries
• “16 plus one”
• Belt and Road initiative
• EU
• connectivity
• China rise