• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the setting up of an India-EU Trade and Technology Council.

• India is the second country after the US to have such a mechanism with the 27-nation European Union.

• The EU had sent the proposal to India for setting up of the TTC just a few days back and New Delhi promptly accepted it considering the strategic significance of the mechanism.

• The decision to set up a TTC will be the first for India with any of its partners. 

Purpose of Trade and Technology Council (TTC)

• The European Union and India are bound by decades of close partnership and are determined to increase joint efforts to tackle current challenges and address geopolitical circumstances. 

• The shared values and common interests of the EU and India offer a strong basis to intensify mutually beneficial and deeper strategic cooperation.

• The EU-India Trade and Technology Council (TTC) will allow both partners to tackle challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology and security, and thus deepen cooperation in these fields.

• The purpose of the TTC is to enhance trade and investment, strengthen technological and industrial leadership, boost innovation, protect and promote critical and emerging technologies and infrastructure, and encourage compatible standards and regulations based on shared democratic values.

• Cooperation within the TTC will also feed into coordination in multilateral bodies and wider efforts with like-minded partners, with the aim of promoting a democratic model of digital governance.

• It will provide the political steer and the necessary structure to operationalise political decisions, coordinate technical work, and report to the political level to ensure implementation and follow-up in areas that are important for the sustainable progress of European and Indian economies.

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, many 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.

• On July 15, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held the 15th India-EU Summit virtually along with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen. The Summit provided a new strategic roadmap upto 2025 to comprehensively upgrade the relationship, including establishing new dialogue mechanisms on bilateral trade and investment and maritime security. 

Trade and Investment:

• The EU remains one of the top trade and investment partners of India.

• India is the EU’s 10th largest trading partner, accounting for 1.8 per cent of EU’s total bilateral trade in goods. 

• Trade in goods between the EU and India increased by 12.5 per cent in the last decade.

• The EU’s share in foreign investment inflows to India more than doubled from 8 per cent to 18 per cent in the last decade making the EU India’s largest source of FDI. During April 2000 to September 2020, FDI inflows from the EU to India totaled $86.82 billion.

• An Investment Facilitation Mechanism promotes and facilitates FDI inflows from the EU. 

• Indian investments into the EU are estimated at €50 billion.

• 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.

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