16 EU-India Strategic Partnership
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10773/04
COM(04) 430
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| Commission Communication on an EU-India Strategic Partnership
Commission Staff Working Document: Annex to the Commission Communication
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 16 June 2004
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| Deposited in Parliament | 25 June 2004
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 8 July 2004
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | Not known
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Cleared
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Background
16.1 In modern times, the EU-India relationship dates from the
1993 Joint Political Statement, the 1994 Co-operation Agreement
and the first EU-India Summit in Lisbon in 2000. On 16 June
2003, the European Commission officially adopted a Communication
on creating an EU-India Strategic Partnership. The Communication
identifies a need for a new strategic basis for the EU-India relationship,
which is primarily a consequence of India's recent and predicted
economic growth, which will lead to its being one of the world's
largest economies by 2050. But it is reinforced by India's recent
progress in its relations with Pakistan, its pursuit of new alliances
with the US and China and the continued vitality of its democracy.
It is now clear, according to the Communication, that the intensity
of the EU's current contacts with India, and the scale of its
ambition for the relationship, have outgrown the existing institutional
framework. The Communication proposes to develop a series of "strategic
dialogues" tackling the range of shared challenges and opportunities,
and on reinforcing the institutional arrangements for the EU-India
relationship. Much of the detailed analysis, together with a
review of the relationship, is contained in a Commission working
paper annexed to the Communication.
The new strategy
16.2 The starting point is that the partnership should be based
on equality and trust, and guided by the following principles
and objectives:
- To support Indian policies that promote peace, stability,
democracy, human rights, the rule of law and good governance,
both in its region and world-wide;
- in the same geographical scope, to co-operate
on fighting poverty, inequality and social exclusion, and on sustainable
development, environmental protection and climate change; and
- to enhance economic co-operation between the
EU and India.
16.3 The Communication then provides an overview
of the state of India today, covering its emergence as an international
player, multilaterally, regionally and bilaterally, including
its improving relations with Pakistan. It also discusses India's
burgeoning economy, while highlighting the continued need for
reform and the economic and cultural diversity that must be factored
in to the EU's approach to India. It then gives a brief resumé
of the development of the EU-India relationship, since the first
Summit in Lisbon in 2000.
16.4 The main section of the Communication analyses
the scope for further work between the EU and India in each of
the areas — international co-operation, economic partnership
and development co-operation — and proposes actions in each
of those areas. They are summarized in the helpful and comprehensive
Explanatory Memorandum of 8 July from the Minister for Europe
(Mr Denis MacShane):
"On international co-operation, the Communication
proposes that the EU and India should work more closely in multilateral
fora, particularly by coordinating positions in major multilateral
conventions and conferences, and by maintaining a dialogue on
UN reform. The Communication further recommends that the EU should
seek to engage India in dialogue in the fields of conflict prevention
and post-conflict reconstruction, non-proliferation of nuclear
weapons (including experts' meetings on dual-use technologies),
the fight against terrorism and organised crime, migration, and
democracy and human rights. It also looks beyond India to the
wider South Asia region, proposing that the EU should formulate
a South Asia strategy to guide its approach to its relations with
the region.
"The section on strengthening the Economic Partnership
begins from the observation that the EU is India's largest trading
partner, but that India ranks only 14th among the EU's
trade relationships. The Communication notes that India must continue
to open its markets and reform its economic structures, including
tackling high and discriminatory tariffs and taxes, numerous non-tariff
barriers, restrictions on foreign direct investment, and lack
of protection of intellectual property rights. The Communication
proposes that the EU establish new dialogue with India on regulatory
and industrial policy, the environment, information society, transport,
energy, and biotechnology. It also highlights the opportunities
for further co-operation on the Galileo global satellite navigation
system and on space science and technology.
"Noting that trade and investment is a cornerstone
of the EU-India relationship, the Communication recommends further
work between the two to converge positions within the WTO Doha
Round negotiations, as well as new bilateral initiatives such
as dialogues on investment, intellectual property rights, trade
defence instruments, technical barriers to trade and sanitary
and phytosanitary issues. It also proposes the creation of an
EU-India One Stop Shop to provide the European and Indian private
sectors with comprehensive information and advice on customs procedures,
duties, taxes, and so on in the respective markets.
"The Communication also outlines various initiatives
to promote business-to-business co-operation, to build on synergies
in science and technology, and to establish dialogue at Ministerial
level on finance and monetary affairs.
"The third area for further work, Development
Co-operation, is an area in which, the Communication states, India
has made significant improvements to the well being of its citizens
in the last thirty years, though poverty and inequality is still
widespread. The central plank of the Communication's recommendations
on development co-operation is that the EU should help India meet
the Millennium Development Goals, perhaps focusing on social and
economic cohesion. More generally, EU co-operation would concentrate
on the full participation of marginalised groups in society, as
well as supporting OECD guidelines on EU businesses operating
in India and the fundamental ILO conventions on freedom of association
and child labour.
"The proposals for concrete co-operation end
with suggestions for regular exchanges between the European Parliament
and its Indian counterparts, academic links, and cultural co-operation.
It also notes that much work needs to be done on raising the EU's
profile in India beyond trade issues, and calls on Member States'
missions to report on the EU's visibility in India and contribute
to a future awareness-raising and communication strategy.
"The Communication then goes on to review the
institutional framework of the EU-India relationship under the
1994 Co-operation Agreement, the 1993 Joint Political Statement
and the first EU-India Summit in Lisbon in 2000. It recommends
that the framework be streamlined, and its effectiveness increased,
by providing for sub-Commissions and temporary working groups
on specific issues, as well as regular EU-Indian Heads of Mission
meetings in UN sites."
16.5 The Commission concludes by inviting the Council,
the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee
to endorse the main thrust of the documents. It expresses the
hope that this will be the starting point of a period of reflection
on upgrading the EU-India relationship to a truly strategic partnership
in the run-up to the fifth Summit in October, at which India would
also present its thoughts on the relationship. These two processes
would then form the basis for a seminar to produce non-binding
guidelines for an Action Plan and a new Joint EU-India Political
Declaration. These would be launched at the sixth Summit, which
is due to take place under the UK's Presidency of the EU in the
second half of 2005.
The Government's view
16.6 The Government welcomes the Commission's efforts
to enhance the EU-India relationship, supports the focus on specific
proposals for action in areas covering the whole spectrum of that
relationship and looks forward to using the sixth EU-India Summit
during the UK's Presidency of the EU to take forward the recommendations
for political co-operation made in the Communication.
Conclusion
16.7 The dynamism of the Indian economy now touches
many peoples' daily lives in the UK, well beyond the thriving
Indian diaspora in the UK's increasingly multi-ethnic society.
As the world's largest democracy, India sets an example, and
not just to the developing world. Security and the social challenges
in the region, which likewise affect UK and wider European interests,
cannot be properly addressed without full and effective engagement
with India, and not just by Ministers and officials but by parliamentarians
too. The notion of an enhanced strategic partnership is timely.
The coincidence of the next EU-India Summit and the UK's Presidency
of the EU should enable the UK to play a positive role consistent
with both the history and the current reality of its deep and
longstanding relations with India, and especially to ensure that
the focus is indeed on specific proposals. In the meantime, we
clear the document.
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