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15th India-EU Summit

  • 16 Jul 2020

  • The 15th India-European Union Summit was held virtually.
  • It was co-chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President of European Council Charles Michel and President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. 
  • India and the European Union signed a civil nuclear agreement before the India-EU virtual summit.
  • Though India-EU summits discuss several topics, the major thrust has been working on a Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) since 2007, but India's trade regime and regulatory environment remains comparatively restrictive that is why after several rounds of negotiations still there is no consensus on Free Trade Agreement.
  • Differences related to matters such as the level of FDI & market access, manufacture of generic drugs, greenhouse gas emissions, civil nuclear energy, farming subsidies, regulation & safeguards of the financial sector, cooperation on tax evasion, overseas financing of NGOs in India, trade controls, technology transfer restrictions and cooperation on embargoes (Russia) are the hurdles.

India-EU Economic Relations

  • The EU is India's largest trading partner, whilst India is the EU's 9th largest partner. The EU is the second-largest destination for Indian exports after the USA.
  • The EU's share in foreign investment inflows to India has more than doubled from 8% to 18% in the last decade, making the EU the first foreign investor in India. The EU’s foreign direct investment stocks in India is also significant but way below to EU foreign investment stocks in China (€175 billion) or Brazil (€312 billion).
  • Some 6,000 European companies are present in India, providing directly 1.7 million jobs and indirectly 5 million jobs in a broad range of sectors. Indian companies invested over €50 billion in Europe since 2000.