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After a tumultuous week hosting U.S. President Donald Trump, European leaders will look to fare better when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visits Brussels on Thursday.

The two-day summit presents an opportunity for China to demonstrate its leadership on global issues from free trade to climate change at a time when the U.S. is turning inward. Yet European Union officials remain skeptical that China will follow through on President Xi Jinpings commitment to global trade expressed in Davos in January, and the two economic powers remain mired in long-standing tussles over issues such as market access and selling goods below cost.

EU President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will attend the summit, where China will be looking for progress on the EUs proposal to begin recognizing it as a market economy -- a status that makes it more difficult to impose anti-dumping measures on its exports.The two sides will also seek to work on a stalled investment deal thats seen as a precursor to a potential trade agreement.

The country needs to walk the talk, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom told the European Business Summit in Brussels in May. Whatever President Xi says in Davos, China is still far from a market economy.

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The summit is taking place days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who will meet with the Chinese premier in Berlin on Thursday morning -- gave her strongest indication that Europe and the U.S. are drifting apart. During his first foreign trip, Trump raised questions over relations with traditional U.S. allies when he hectored NATO nations for not spending enough on defense and called Germanys trade surplus very bad.

The summit gives Chinas leaders the chance to show that their aspirations to lead on economic globalization are sincere, said Mats Harborn, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. He said its time for the two economies to back up their words by moving forward to complete the investment agreement and to offer reciprocal market access.

At the meeting, the EU and China will seek to create momentum for a bilateral investment agreement, according to a European official with knowledge of the discussions who asked not to be named because talks are ongoing. Europeans have said an investment accord is a precondition for any move toward a broader EU-China trade deal.

The Sino-European relationship is up in the air, said Philippe Le Corre, a visiting fellow at theBrookings Institutions Center on the United States and Europe. From Brussels, the list of unsolved issues remains: market economy status, bilateral investment treaty, lack of market access to European companies in China.

Three years of talks between Brussels and Beijing on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment have stalled. European businesses remain disappointed with Chinas efforts to level the playing field for companies operating in the nation, the EUs second-largest trading partner, a survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China showed on Wednesday.

Half of European companies feel less welcome in China than when they first entered the market, according to the survey. More than half reported that they are treated unfairly compared to domestic Chinese companies.

A January report conducted by Rhodium Group and the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies estimated that Chinese direct investment in the EU surged 77 percent to 35 billion euros ($39 billion) in 2016. In contrast, the value of EU transactions in China decreased for a fourth straight year to only 8 billion euros.

At the Brussels meeting, the EU will press the Chinese government to accelerate steps to open up the domestic economy, according to the official, who also said Europe would raise sensitive trade matters such as demands for China to cut steel overcapacity.

We all know European companies investing in China face difficulties and discrimination,EU Trade Commissioner Malmstromsaid. Its not fair competition or fair trade when the playing field is tilted against you, with dumping and subsidies.

China is also complaining. Beijing has alleged the EUs method for calculating anti-dumping measures against Chinese products including steel violates agreements at the World Trade Organization, which has begun investigating the issue, Bloomberg reported in April.

The European Commission drafted legislation late last year that would abolish the non-market-economy label the EU assigns to China when probing alleged below-cost imports. The measures, which would make it more difficult to impose high anti-dumping duties, need the support of EU governments and lawmakers in a process that can take months or years.

The EU should avoid causing negative impact on the development of China-EU trade and economic relations, Wang Hejun, director of the Chinese commerce ministrys Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said in a statement objecting to the EUs extension of anti-dumping measures relating to photovoltaic products in March.

Aside from trade and investment, other potential sticking points may include tensions over Chinas construction of military facilities in the East and South China Seas. Leaders at last weekends Group of Seven summit urged parties to pursue demilitarization of disputed features in the disputed waters.

The meeting may yield more common ground on combating climate change, with both the EU and China already signaling their intentions to advance the Paris Agreement. Trump failed to commit to the global pact at the G-7 gathering and announced on Twitter on Wednesday that he would make a decision on whether to remain in the accord over the next few days.

Regardless of the U.S. presidents decision on the Paris Agreement, the EU and China will pledge to stand by their commitments on curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the European official.

As China-EU economic and trade relations continue to grow, some existing differences between them may be eliminated while others arise, according to Ambassador Yang Yanyi, head of the Chinese mission to the EU.

This is just natural,Yang told Chinas official Xinhua News Agencyin an interview before the summit. The key is to understand how to manage and handle these differences properly.

With assistance by Keith Zhai, and Peter Martin

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EU Leaders Turn to China After Trump Visit Clouds U.S. Relations - Bloomberg

A withdrawal by the United States from the Paris climate deal would be disappointing but the European Union stood ready to take global leadership on this issue, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

United States president Donald Trump is expected to make an announcement on whether he will stay in the agreement this week, with media reports on Wednesday suggesting he had made up his mind to withdraw.

Representational image. Reuters

"If they decide to pull out it would be disappointing but I really do not think this would change the course of mankind," said European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic.

"There is a much stronger expectation from our partners across the world from Africa, Asia and China that Europe should assume leadership in this effort and we are ready to do that," Sefcovic added.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Axiosreport suggested that Trump has decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, citing two unidentified sources with direct knowledge of the decision.

Trump, who has previously called global warming a hoax, refused to endorse the landmark climate change accord at a summit of the G7 group of wealthy nations on Saturday, saying he needed more time to decide. He then tweeted that he would make an announcement this week.

Fox News also cited an unidentified source confirming the pullout.

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European Union says ready for climate leadership if US pulls out of Paris deal - Firstpost

Uber's executive exodus continues, as head of finance Gautam Gupta is leaving in July, the company told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday and later confirmed to Axios. Gupta will be joining an undisclosed San Francisco startup where he'll be COO, Axios has learned.

Uber also revealed its latest quarterly financials (which it also reported to investors) on Thursday: It brought in $3.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter, up 18% from the fourth quarter. Its losses (not including employee stock and other items) also shrunk to $708 million, down from $991 million three months earlier. Its non-GAAP revenue for the quarter, which is adjusted for fares from carpool rides, is much lower at $1.5 billon, up from $1.4 billion.

Help wanted: Though Gupta has been Uber's highest ranking finance executive, he's not the company's CFOa position that has been vacant since Brent Callinicos left in 2015. The company is now launching a CFO search, and will be looking for candidates with public-company experience as it eyes an eventual IPO, according to a source familiar with the efforts.

Mass exodus: Gupta is only the latest Uber executive and senior employee to depart in the last few months, though a the company says his departure is unrelated to its recent challenges, including a lawsuit and allegations of sexism. Others include its head of PR, its president of ride-sharing, its VP of global vehicle programs, and several self-driving car employees, among others.

The story has been updated with additional information about Gupta's departure and Uber's disclosure of financials and CFO search.

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European Union will fund public wifi - Axios

Greece is the EUs heaviest-smoking country, a survey published by the European Commission for World No Tobacco Day has found.

Thirty-seven percent of Greeks are smokers, according to the report, which also showed that Greece had the smallest proportion of people, 44 percent, who said theyve never smoked a cigarette.

The survey showed a wide range of smoking rates among countries in the EU, which overall has a smoking rate of 26 percent. After Greece, France and Bulgaria were tied in second place, both with a 36 percent smoking rate, then Croatia at 35 percent.

Sweden had the lowest rate at just 7 percent. It also found that overall in the EU, the smoking rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has gone up from 25 percent in 2014 to 29 percent this year.

In terms of measures to stamp out smoking, 63 percent of those surveyed for the study said the use of electronic cigarettes should also be banned in places where smoking is prohibited.

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Survey: Greeks are heaviest smokers in European Union - Kathimerini

It lists 74 different EU bodies which it wants Britain to pay its share of funding, including the European Commission, the European Standards Agency and the EU Council.

The final bill should be paid in euros, it says, adding that the financial settlement should be based on the principle that the United Kingdom must honour its share of the financing of all the obligations undertaken while it was a member of the Union.

The United Kingdom obligations should be fixed as a percentage of the EU obligations calculated at the date of withdrawal in accordance with a methodology to be agreed in the first phase of the negotiations.

The bill should also take into pensions and other employee benefits of staff at the EU institutions.

Mrs May will use the demands to try to convince voters that she is better placed than her Labour rival Jeremy Corbyn to negotiate Britains exit from the EU.

Mrs May is expected to say today: The European Commission has shown the importance of the choice faced by the British public next week.

They are adopting an aggressive negotiating position, which can only be met by strong leadership on behalf of Britain. Jeremy Corbyn is in no position to provide that kind of leadership. He has no plan to deliver Brexit, and he has already admitted he would give control of our borders and control of our laws back to Brussels. The Brexit negotiations are due to begin only eleven days after polling day.

If I lose just six seats, Jeremy Corbyn could become Prime Minister at the head of a coalition of chaos, with the parties still arguing among themselves rather than negotiating for Britain.

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European Union demands indefinite right to remain for unborn children of EU nationals in UK - Telegraph.co.uk