Her remarks came after talks this week between top European and Chinese trade officials, following which the EU's trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said Brussels wanted "tangible results" by October from its discussions with Beijing.

The European Union must continue its dialogue with China, von der Leyen said during a visit to Cork city as Ireland kicked off its six-month presidency of the bloc.

"But the dialogue also has to deliver," von der Leyen told reporters.

She added the EU had to be "very clear" in its talks, raising issues including "the subsidised overcapacity of goods coming to our market to a lack of market access of our companies at the Chinese market".

She also pointed to "the unfair competition because of the subsidies that we do not want to see any more on our market".

Between 2005 and 2024, Chinese firms received around three to eight times more government support than companies in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Von der Leyen warned the EU was ready to act if it did not see change.

"We are basically prepared for everything, and we have all instruments on the table, and we are thinking about other possibilities if necessary," she said.

EU leaders last month tasked the commission, the bloc's lead on trade policy, to continue talks but also to prepare new tools to protect the bloc's industries.

The 27-country European Union's trade deficit in goods with China hit around 360 billion euros in 2025, meaning the EU imported way more from the Asian nation than it exported there.