Karmenu Vella, Member of the EC in charge of Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and Violeta Bulc, Member of the EC in charge of Transport, attended the ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the EU and China. On this occasion, Yang Yanyi, Head of the Mission of China to the EU, and Helga Schmid, Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS), pronounced a speech in honour of four decades of cooperation between the two parties.