The 15th summit between India and the European Union will be held via video conference on July 15, the ministry of external affairs and officials of the influential grouping announced.

PM Narendra Modi will hold extensive talks with President of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on a range of issues in the summit, EU officials said.

India-EU relations

India-EU relations date back to the early 1960s with India being amongst the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community in 1962. 

A Joint Political statement signed in 1993 followed by the Cooperation Agreement between India and the EU in 1994 expanded ties from the pillar of trade and economic cooperation and enabled political dialogue and annual ministerial meetings.

High-level engagements

Over the years, a multi-tiered institutional architecture for cooperation with the EU has been created with the summit at its apex. The first India-EU Summit was held in Lisbon in 2000 which marked a watershed in the development of the relationship. 

Since then, 14 bilateral summits have been held between India and the EU. The relationship was upgraded to a ‘Strategic Partnership’ during the fifth India-EU Summit held at The Hague in 2004.

The 14th India-EU summit was held in New Delhi in 2017. 

Trade and Investment

The EU as a whole was India’s largest trading partner while India was EU’s ninth largest trading partner in 2018. 

India’s bilateral trade with the EU in 2018-19 stood at $115.6 billion.

India is also the fourth largest service exporter to the EU and the sixth largest destination for service exports from the EU.

EU is the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into India. From April 2000 to June 2018, FDI equity flows from the EU countries into India totaled $90.7 billion, which is about 24 per cent of the total FDI inflows to India. An Investment Facilitation Mechanism promotes and facilitates FDI inflows from the EU. 

Indian investments into the EU are estimated at 50 billion euros.

Some 6,000 European companies are present in India, providing directly 1.7 million jobs and indirectly five million jobs in a broad range of sectors.

India and the EU began negotiations on a bilateral Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) in 2007. India and the EU expect to promote bilateral trade by removing barriers to trade in goods and services and investment across all sectors of the economy.

Science and research

India-EU Science & Technology Steering Committee meets annually to review scientific cooperation. 

India and European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) signed a cooperation agreement in the field of fusion energy research in 2009. India is a participant in ITER, an experimental fusion reactor facility in Cadarache (France) to prove the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a future source of energy. 

ISRO has a long standing cooperation with the European Union, since the 1970s. ISRO and the European Space Agency are working towards enhancing cooperation in earth observation. 

The 15th India-EU Summit

PM Modi was scheduled to visit Brussels in March for the summit. But his visit was cancelled in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

The leaders are expected to reiterate their determination to promote effective multilateralism and a rules-based multilateral order, with the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core, the officials said. 

The MEA said the summit will review India-EU cooperation covering political and security relations, trade and investment and economic cooperation. 

The EU officials said the summit will be an opportunity to strengthen the EU-India strategic partnership based on shared principles and values of democracy, freedom and rule of law.

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