"The new relationship will be more neutral and more rational," said Jin.

Jin said that if the EU doesn't realize China does face a lot of challenges and problems, the Sino-EU relationships would be hindered.

"The EU's expectation for China has always been beyond the country's reality. It's another obstacle between China and EU," Jin added.

Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the EU and South Korea have entered into a free trade deal at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on the sidelines of the leaders' summit in Brussels.

The Council agreed that the date of the provisional application will be July 1, 2011, and that notification will be sent to South Korea before that date.

Vanackere calls the agreement "a very big step" in binding a major Asian economy with an EU that will "create prosperity" for South Korea and Europe.

New appointments

Among Ashton's 29 nominations for EU delegation heads German Markus Ederer, a top foreign ministry official in Berlin, is to take up the Beijing post at the end of this year.

"The EU believes China is the second most important player after the US, so it has to pick its ambassador to China from one of the powers in EU," said Jin.

Meanwhile, Germany has set up more robust economic and trade cooperation with China than any other EU country, thus the new German ambassador could boost Sino-EU relation to new a new stage, said Jin.

"I have heard (Ederer) is an excellent person, and certainly the task in Beijing and the new challenges require such excellence, " the current ambassador Abou said.