New Delhi: India and the European Union (EU) are looking to sign the free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of the year, with an aim of operationalising it by the first half of 2027, EU envoy Herve Delphin said Monday.
“I think both sides are working very hard to complete the process of the so-called legal vetting of the text in such a way that by the end of the year there will be a possibility to sign the FTA. While it is signed on the EU side we have an extra step which is that the European Parliament has to give this consent and once this consent is registered then the FTA will be entering into force,” Delphin said, while interacting with the media after interacting with roughly 75 Indian students who have received the Erasmus Mundus scholarship.
He added: “So I think I cannot give a specific date because I am not in a position to say it, I mean the work is ongoing but I think we can confidently look at early (20)27 as a moment where the FTA could enter into force which would be by any measure a record in terms of one, almost a year after the conclusion of the FTA negotiations to have the FTA entering into force.”
Negotiations concluded earlier this year, when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden and European Council President Antonio Costa travelled to New Delhi and were chief guests at this year’s Republic Day parade. However, there remained questions around the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a border tariff imposed on up to seven industries including steel and cement.
Delphin clarified that any future amendments to the CBAM will be implemented to the context of India as well. The EU envoy added that the mechanism would “incentivise” the decarbonisation of the economy, and that the multilateral bloc will also “facilitate” India’s aims to move to environmentally friendly production methods in these sectors.
The EU envoy spoke of the growing people to people connection between India and Europe, with close to 900,000 Indians travelling to Europe in 2024. Almost 100,000 Indians study across the 27-member bloc, with the goal to expand further.
“More and more we need this type of talents and profiles that can be nurturing the business, trade, economy, cultural and all sorts of relations that will exist between Europe and India which are bound to grow. If you look already in 2024, there were close to 900,000 Indians that visited Europe with a visa and you have almost 100,000 Indian students currently studying in Europe,” said Delphin.
He added: “So probably it didn’t really make such a hit in the news, but two years ago, there was an agreement on what we call the Schengen visa cascade. With the FTA, I think you will see different strengths of movement and mobility. Business people, researchers, workers.”
As a part of its goals to promote closer people to people ties, the delegation of the EU to India Monday also launched its ambassador programme. The delegation has selected 20 universities across India and identified ‘Ambassadors of the EU in India’ to raise awareness of Europe within the country, in the hope of engendering curiosity within Indian students over the continent.
The members of the EU including Germany and France have all pushed for an influx of Indian students and high skilled professionals in recent years. The FTA has a mobility component, which gives Indians legal pathways to work and live in Europe.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)