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EU-India

The European Union and India launched negotiations on a bilateral free trade and investment agreement in June 2007. However, between the governments, a number of controversies have been plaguing the talks. Delhi wants Brussels to relax its stringent food safety criteria which penalise Indian farm and fishery exports and to make it easier for Indian professionals to work in the EU. Europe is primarily out to win major openings of India’s services sector and broad liberalisation of foreign investment, while India does not want to discuss allowing European firms to compete in India’s government procurement market.

Indian social movements, including fisherfolk and labour unions, people living with HIV/AIDS and other health activists have been mobilizing against the FTA. International actions and campaigns have particularly targeted the proposed intellectual property provisions of the agreement, and the impact of the FTA on access to medicines.

last update: May 2012
Photo: MSF


EU-India trade talks must stop
Civil society groups today urged the European Commission and Indian Government to halt free trade negotiations, scheduled to continue in Delhi tomorrow
Call for International Week of Action against EU-India FTA
We are calling for an international week of joint action from 4 October 2010 to 9 October 2010 to call upon the Government of India to reject the EU-India FTA, especially the provisions relating to intellectual property rights and investment.
People living with HIV call out EU hypocrisy on MDGs as it pushes FTAs
People living with HIV call out EU hypocrisy on Millennium Development Goals as it forces its trade agreements on developing countries, seizes generic drugs and negotiates ACTA
India, EU take another step towards FTA
Negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union, the world’s largest economy, and India, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, took one more step towards completion today, with chief negotiators concluding 2-day talks in Brussels.
Appeal to sign on letter to Indian PMO on India-EU FTA
We request organizations and individuals across the world to join Delhi Network of Positive People in a sign on letter to issue a appeal to the Indian government to ’not sign on’ to any IP provisions in the FTA negotiations.
Corporate lobbyists set agenda for EU-India trade deal, new report shows
The livelihoods of millions of small farmers, street traders and patients are at risk under the terms of a new trade deal being negotiated by the EU and India which has been hijacked by big business, a new joint report from Corporate Europe Observatory and India FDI Watch reveals
Right to health, medicine to be protected at all cost: Scindia
India has said that it will not compromise on issues related to health and people’s right to medicine in the bilateral trade and investment agreement being negotiated with the European Union.
Trade talks with EU put drug manufacturers on edge
There are already reports that India and the European Union will have a free-trade agreement ready by the end of August, causing more nervous chatter here in India
India, EU in new bid to clinch free-trade deal
India and the European Union are to hold a fresh series of free-trade talks next month in Brussels in a bid to clinch a deal by the end of the year, an official said.
EU seized in Vienna
It appears that the EU has dropped its demands for patent extensions and may have made data exclusivity subject to compulsory licensing in the EU-India FTA.