Brussels, 19/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - Adopting a report on Wednesday by Spanish Socialist Emilio Menendez del Valle by 60 to 9 with 1 abstention, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee hoped to see greater funding to establish a strategic partnership between the EU and India.
The MEPs urged the EU to make rapid progress in its relations with India, following the United States' example, but listed several areas which had to be urgently tackled by the Indian government, especially human rights. They called on the New Delhi government to ensure they struck a fair balance between over-rigid right to work and unacceptable exploitation of workers and urged India to study options for taking common action to launch development cooperation projects in other countries. They also want India to take greater responsibility and awareness of the issue of climate change and the MEPs asked EU Member States to boost cooperation with India concerning nuclear energy. The MEPs point out that India has still not ratified the United Nations Convention on Torture, signed in 1997, but this is a vital precondition for boosting relations between the EU and India. They urge the country to join the International Criminal Court. The EP Committee backed the work of the Indian Human Rights Committee in favour of groups like the Dalits (untouchables) and Adivasis. The European Parliament will vote on the resolution at its September plenary, the same week as an EU-India Summit (expected to adopt a detailed action plan).