The paper examines the issue of renewal of the treaty basis in relations between the EU and China, where the Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation signed in 1985 still remains the corner-stone document; determines major problems, which create obstacles to successful ending of the negotiating process, and evaluates prospects of solving these problems in the nearest future. The author makes conclusion, that after rather strained relations during 2008, there are all pre-conditions for parties to reach at last principle understandings in the new year, which will help them to finish formal negotiations, conclude the first comprehensive agreement and thus to upgrade the treaty basis to realities of bilateral relations at the beginning of the 21st century.

China and the European Union, the Agreement on Trade and Economic Cooperation, bilateral relations, renewal of the treaty basis in relations