On the occasion of the EU–India agreement being signed in New Delhi (see EUROPE 13795/1) on Tuesday, 27 January, the European Commission published a strategic agenda that places security, defence, and mobility at the heart of this new partnership.
Defence. In terms of security, both parties intend to implement a ‘Security and Defence Partnership’, which facilitates, among other things, the exchange of classified data.
The agenda envisages creating an “India–EU Defence Industry Forum” to bring their defence industries together and explore, “where there [is] mutual interest”, Indian participation in certain European initiatives, in accordance with legal frameworks.
The EU and India have also committed to promoting an Indo-Pacific that is built on international law and peaceful dispute resolution.
Fight against crime. The aim is also to jointly combat “terrorism [...] in all its forms”, violent radicalisation, and the use of new technologies for terrorist purposes. The EU and New Delhi thus want to “strengthen law enforcement cooperation” through a working arrangement between the Indian CBI and Europol. Increased cooperation with Eurojust and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is also envisaged.
Mobility. In the extension of the memorandum of understanding on legal mobility (see EUROPE 13785/1), the EU and India wish to “support mutually beneficial skills [...] mobility” while combating irregular immigration and facilitating returns and readmissions.
Both parties also plan to eventually use the ‘EU Talent Pool’ platform to attract Indian talent to shortage occupations in the EU and to modernise Schengen visa procedures by digitalising them.
While this agreement was largely celebrated by MEPs on the Committee on International Trade (INTA), Lynn Boylan (The Left, Irish) nevertheless lamented that trade and security were prioritised “to the detriment of other forms of cooperation more conducive to social justice, shared knowledge, and peace”. By way of reminder, she also mentioned that there were “long-standing concerns about violations of fundamental freedoms, religious and ethnic discrimination, and the erosion of the rights of minorities and civil society” in India, lamenting that these aspects did not appear in the agreement to a greater extent.
The comprehensive strategic agenda: https://aeur.eu/f/kfo (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)