Why in News?

Recently , EU’s College of Commissioners led by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited India.

How has the India – Europe Relationship evolved?

• First diplomatic relation - India established diplomatic relations with the European Economic Community — the first pillar of the future European Union — back in 1962.
  • Joint Political Statement was signed in 1993
  • Cooperation Agreement was signed in  1994
• India-EU Summits -  The first Summit was held in Lisbon in June 2000 and 15 of which have been held so far.
• Strategic Partnership - The bilateral relationship was upgraded to a Strategic Partnership at the 5th India -EU Summit in The Hague in 2004.
• India - EU Trade - EU is India’s largest trading partner in goods, and bilateral trade has increased 90% over the past decade.
• Goods trade - Bilateral trade in goods was $135 billion in FY 2023-24, with Indian exports to the EU accounting for $76 billion and imports for $59 billion.
• Services trade - Bilateral trade in services in 2023 stood at $53 billion, comprising Indian exports of $30 billion and imports of $23 billion.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) - Cumulative FDI flows from the EU during the period April 2000 to September 2024 was $117.4 billion, which represented 16.6% of the total FDI equity inflow.
• Indian FDI outflows to the EU are valued at approximately $40.04 billion for the period April 2000 to March 2024.
• Technology cooperation - Bilateral science and technology cooperation is carried out within the framework of the Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement of 2007.
• Clean Energy and Climate Partnership -  India-EU Clean Energy and Climate Partnership was agreed at the EU-India Summit on 30 March 2016.
• High Performance Computing (HPC) Cooperation - The India-EU Intent of Cooperation in High Performance Computing (HPC) was signed in November 2022.
• India-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) – It was established in 2022 as a strategic coordination mechanism to tackle challenges at the nexus of trade, trusted technology, and security.

The First Ministerial Meeting of the TTC was held in May 2023.

Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies was signed with the US and  the Technology Security Initiative with the United Kingdom.

• People-to-people ties - The growing Indian diaspora in the EU contains large numbers of students, researchers, and skilled professionals.
• Indian professionals received the largest share — more than 20% — of EU Blue Cards issued in 2023-24.
• Defence partnership - India and the EU are strengthening their defence cooperation, specially in maritime security and the Indo-Pacific region under ESIWA+ (Enhanced Security in and with Asia) security programme.
• Space collaboration - The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO’s) PSLV successfully launched the EU’s PROBA-3 mission in December 2024.
• ISRO and the European Space Agency (ESA) have cooperated on the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya-L1 missions, and signed an MoU for cooperation on Gaganyaan, India’s human spaceflight mission.
• Erasmus scholarships  - Over the last 20 years, more than 6,000 Erasmus scholarships have been awarded to Indian students, making them among the top recipients of the scholarships.
• Marie - Curie Scholarship -  More than 2,700 Indian researchers have been funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (part of the EU’s research and innovation programme Horizon Europe) since 2014 — the most in the world.

What are the recent developments?

• Meeting at the leaders’ level - Prime Minister Narendra Modi and EC President Ursula von der Leyen have met at least seven times in the past.
• Presidential visit - The EC President paid an official visit to India in April 2022, during which she participated in the Raisina Dialogue as Chief Guest
• Roadmap - The India-EU Strategic Partnership , A Roadmap to 2025, was adopted at the last India-EU Summit in July 2020.
• FTA negotiation - At the Leaders’ Meeting in May 2021, the two sides announced the resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive free trade and investment agreement.
• Connectivity partnership - Brussels and New Delhi have committed to increase cooperation on connectivity initiatives by signing the “EU-India Connectivity Partnership” in 2021.
• Semiconductor MoU - In November 2023, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding on semiconductor R&D cooperation.
• GPAI Summit - EU participated in the Global Partnership on AI Summit in New Delhi in 2024.
• 3rd phase of Climate an Energy partnership - The third phase of the Partnership (2025–2028) focuses on green hydrogen, offshore wind energy, electricity market integration, energy efficiency and climate diplomacy, driving a sustainable, interconnected energy future.
• Green Hydrogen Cooperation – India-EU Green Hydrogen Cooperation initiative in 2024 facilitates cooperation in infrastructure, technology development.
  • The European Investment Bank has committed to supporting Indian hydrogen projects with funding of 1 billion euros.
• Indian and European companies are collaborating in the renewable and hydrogen sectors with the aim of developing a green hydrogen ecosystem in India by 2030.

Reference

Indian Express | India Europe Partnership