Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong met with Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, pledging to actively promote relationships between China and the EU. Vassiliou said...that such exchanges will enhance communication in the areas of education and culture, and promote further cooperation.

[The EU] allows for members to deal with major cross-border issues such as migration and criminality and trade more effectively... It is a prime example of "soft power"; it has brought peace and stability.

The European Union has clearly lost its relevance and soft power in Turkey. The fact that the most recent progress report coming from Brussels did not trigger a serious discussion in the country shows that the majority of Turks simply do not care what the EU thinks of their country.

The 4th Annual European Union Film Festival in China will be held from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30...the EU Film Festival provides a good chance for Chinese people to appreciate EU films and learn about their development, which could also lead the Chinese audience to acquire a better understanding of European culture.

...it is time for Europe to adopt a different strategy toward Russia, its biggest and most important eastern neighbor. In practice, it means recognizing that Europe’s interests are best served by pursuing its values with soft-power instruments like trade and visa policy, as its relations with North Africa and the Middle East before the Arab Spring show.

Given the financial fiasco in the EU in the past two years, EU partisans now seem to be significantly overrating the appeal of membership to prospective candidate nations. Yet that message does not appear to have penetrated the thinking of either Western political leaders or pundits in the policy community.The EU is still the great brass ring of European politics, but it is now a tarnished brass ring.

It bears repeating. The European Union's soft power works. Not always, not everywhere, and not without reverses, but the EU has a transformational capacity to make others adopt their values: free, fair elections; rule of law; market economies that maximize the welfare of citizens; and a pan-European outlook.