Chinese scholars have been fascinated with the European model of economic and social development for many years and a lot of papers and books have been published.

Recently, one more book has been published in Chinese on this topic.  Edited by Prof. Luo Hongbo, the new book, titled “The EU's socioeconomic model and reform”, attempts to study why the EU model is successful and what the challenges it faces today. It discusses the model’s relationship between efficiency and equality, governance and coordination, and values and institutions in multilateral and unilateral perspectives. It also explores the model’s common trade policies, industrial policies, the labor market, financial regulation, social protection, etc.

Luo Hongbo writes in the preface that different cultures and national conditions would result in different models of socioeconomic development. It is counter-productive to borrow other’s model in a blind way. However, as socioeconomic development and regulation of the market tend to follow certain rules and different models have their own shortcomings and strong points, it is necessary for China to learn from the EU models.

This book is one of the four books on the study of the EU models.  Other three books are: The EU’s Model of Governance; A Study of the EU’s Identity; and The EU’s Legal Innovation. The editor of the series is Prof. Zhou Hong.