The second EU-China Legal Affairs Dialogue took place in Brussels on 16-17 October, followed by a study visit to Paris on 18-19 October. The Dialogue was created by consensus at the 17^th China-EU Summit in 2015.  The event built on the first Dialogue meeting that was jointly launched in Beijing by Minister Song Dahan, Minister of the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council then and European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vĕra Jourová in Beijing last year.

This second meeting of the Legal Affairs Dialogue invited policy makers, non-governmental organisations and academia from the EU and China to participate. The dialogue focused on better regulation and improvement of the quality law-making, and discussed the importance of transparency, involvement of stakeholders, evidence-based policy making and uniform implementation of laws; as well as the making and development of the Chinese Civil Code.

The Legal Affairs Dialogue is an important platform for EU-China cooperation. It provides an appropriate venue for the EU and China to better understand their respective legal systems and to deepen their partnership in a wide range of areas based on the shared recognition that the EU and China have important links in many sectors such as trade and investment, technology, agriculture, health and social issues, urbanisation, environment protection.

As agreed by both sides, and in line with the terms of reference, the third Legal Affairs Dialogue will be held in 2018 in China. It will consist of a high level segment, followed by workshops on topics related to the overall theme of the dialogue. The Legal Affairs Dialogue will also help to create specialised EU-China networks to bring continuity to the exchanges.