Key outcomes of the second EU-India Trade and Technology Council

The TTC is a key forum to deepen the strategic partnership on trade and technology between the two partners. Geostrategic challenges have reinforced the EU and India's common interest in ensuring security, prosperity and sustainable development based on shared values. The TTC will help foster EU-India bilateral trade, which is at historical highs, with €124 billion worth of goods traded in 2023. In 2023, €60 billion were traded in services, of which €20 billion were digital services.

The ministerial meeting was co-chaired by Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen, Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič, as well as Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva, on the EU side. On the Indian side, there was India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Commerce, Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Key outcomes

The EU and India have set up the TTC as a coordination platform to address key trade, trusted technology and security challenges. The ministerial meeting relied on the accomplishments of three working groups.

Strategic technologies, digital governance and digital connectivity

In line with their shared values, both partners reaffirmed the importance of deepening their digital cooperation. They committed to accelerating a human-centric digital transformation, as well as the development of advanced and trustworthy AI, semiconductors, High-Performance Computing and 6G for the benefit of both economies and societies.

Concretely, the EU and India:

• agreed to work towards the interoperability of their respective Digital Public Infrastructures (DPIs), ensuring they respect human rights and protect personal data, privacy and intellectual property rights
• emphasised the need for e-signatures to be mutually recognised in order to enhance cross-border digital transactions while supporting the economic growth of the two partners.
• will explore joint research and development in the field of chip design. This shows the two partners’ commitment to further strengthen the resilience of semiconductor supply chains.
• will encourage innovation and information exchange by deepening the cooperation between the European AI Office and India AI Mission, including on large language models (LLMs), and harness the potential of AI for human development and common good, including through joint projects such as developing tools and frameworks for ethical and responsible AI.
• welcomed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the EU 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association and the Indian Bharat 6G Alliance towards secured and trusted telecommunications and resilient supply chains.

The EU and India were also able to confirm financial support from both sides for the GANANA project, which seeks to foster a long-term partnership between the two in the development and application of HPC solutions. The project, launched in 2025, receives EU funding from EuroHPC JU with a total budget of nearly €5m stemming from Horizon Europe. GANANA will enhance cooperation not only on HPC, but also help towards common efforts in building capacities for AI applications.

Green and clean energy technologies

Both sides highlighted the progress made on Green and Clean Energy Technologies, which has been instrumental in advancing our shared ambition of achieving net zero emissions. The EU aims to reach this goal by 2050, while India is targeting 2070. Through their cooperation in battery recycling for electric vehicles they successfully connected Indian and EU startups with potential partners and investors. They also held a workshop on E-vehicles charging standards earlier in the week.

Looking ahead the EU and India will launch:

• Joint research cooperation under the Horizon Europe program, through exceptional coordinated calls with India. These will be published in 2025, focusing on key areas such as marine plastic litter and waste-to-renewable hydrogen. Additional calls on recycling of batteries for electrical vehicles are envisaged for 2026, and potential future cooperation on wastewater treatment technologies. Together they sum up a joint investment of around €60 million.
• An "Ideathon" on marine plastic pollution, where Indian and EU partners will create practical solutions to address this pressing issue.
• A dialogue on harmonising standards for the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, which will facilitate mutual access to these growing markets.

Trade, investment and resilient value chains

India is an important trade and investment partner for the EU, with total bilateral trade in goods and services reaching €184 billion in 2023. Considering the rapid growth of the sizeable and dynamic Indian market, there is significant further potential in EU-India trade relations. The EU and India are currently negotiating a free trade agreement, an investment protection agreement and an agreement on geographical indications. The current geopolitical and economic context makes the conclusion of these talks a priority for both sides.

In such a context, closer trade relations are particularly valuable to secure and diversify both sides’ value chains of inputs and final products, thus strengthening both sides’ economic security. With that in mind, at today’s TTC ministerial meeting the EU and India committed to fostering resilient and future-ready value chains notably by collaborating on contingency planning for food security and on sustainability of food systems, cooperating on the establishment of early warning systems to anticipate and mitigate disruptions in the supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and exploring synergies in clean value chains for technologies such as solar energy, offshore wind and green hydrogen.

The EU and India also:

• Made progress on a number of market access issues and agreed to continue their engagement to address these.
• Exchanged best practices on the screening of Foreign Direct Investments, a particularly important area of collaboration for enhancing both sides’ economic security.
• Reaffirmed their commitment to the multilateral trading system, while recognising the need to reform the WTO.
• Held in-depth discussions on trade and decarbonisation, especially on the implementation of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Background

The EU-India TTC was first launched on 6 February 2023 and the announcement by President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, on 25 April 2022 in New Delhi.

The EU-India Trade and Technology Council is the first one established with any partner for India. It will complement the Digital Partnerships already launched with Asian partners as part of the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.