On May 18th, President XU Mingqi of the Shanghai Institute for European Studies (SIES) met Mr. Friedrich Kurz, senior consultant of the German consultancy firm EUROCOM AG. President XU gave a warm welcome to Mr. Friedrich Kurz for his visit to the SIES and extended sincere gratitude to him for his contribution to promote the exchanges between SIES scholars and German experts. They also exchanged opinions on current situations in the Europe, particularly the situation concerning the approaching German general election. SIES’s vice president CAO Ziheng and Deputy Secretary-General YANG Haifeng also took part in this meeting.