EU infrastructure plan still a daydream

The 10th year of President Xi Jinping's proposal for the Belt and Road Initiative is also a time to reflect on what the European Union has done to support or complement the initiative, or to promote a complementary or alternative infrastructure development plan. While a number of European countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, have signed bilateral Belt and Road memorandums with China, the EU has by and large shown reluctance or a lack of ambition to come up with a comparable proposal.

Why? Not only would it be in the EU's best interest to help develop Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, but the Belt and Road approach would also help solve some of the domestic problems of Europe's most developed countries. For even the West, once the model of modernity, has now squandered many of its leading advantages and is increasingly suffering from crumbling and outdated infrastructure, prolonged recessions and a decline in average living standards.

EU's response mixture of hesitance, convergence