Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-24-Speech-3-055"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I welcome your interest in strengthening our relations with India. The European Union-India Summit, which, as Mrs Wallström reminded us, will be held on 29 September 2008 in Marseille, in the presence of the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the Commission President, Mr Barroso and the Council President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is one of a dozen summits we are holding with third countries during the French Presidency.
These measures could, where need be, be supported by the new European Business and Technology Centre. The new centre should open in New Delhi by the end of the year. Of course, we shall also discuss at the summit regional concerns that are crucial for international stability, be it in relation to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma or Iran.
We also wish to make progress at the summit in our strategic partnership with India through the launch or continuation of specific cooperation ventures. We hope to be able to sign a very important agreement regarding aviation. This agreement was initialled by negotiators at the beginning of the year. We are keen to sign it, because it will enable us to bring national legislation in line with Community law at the same time as improving legal certainty for European operators. I am referring here only to flights between India and the European Union. As for the rest, I hope that we are on track as regards Community legislation.
We wish to bring fresh impetus to the negotiations through a trade and investment agreement. It will naturally be the Commission, which has responsibility in this regard, that will negotiate the agreement. We would like to assure the Commission, via Mrs Wallström, of our full support, as our relationship with India is worth strengthening. The signing of a trade and investment agreement would be a major step forward.
While there is great potential for the development of relations with India, it should be remembered that the country is only the European Union’s ninth trade partner behind South Korea, a surprising situation indeed.
The three documents that we intend to adopt at the summit, the revised joint action plan, the work programme on energy and the agreement I mentioned just now, are currently being negotiated with India, along with the joint press release. I am unable to go into detail today regarding these documents, given that discussions are ongoing with our Indian partners, but I think I can say that we are optimistic about what can be achieved by this summit.
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate Parliament on the highly constructive role it has played in relations between the European Union and India. The creation in 2007 of an individual Delegation for relations with India has boosted communication with the Lok Sabha, the Indian Parliament, and Parliament’s delegation will certainly be called on to play a leading role, particularly in terms of the drafting of future parliamentary resolutions on sensitive issues affecting relations between India and the European Union.
Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to give a special mention to the chairman of the Delegation for relations with India, Mrs Gill, and to praise the dynamism with which she fulfils her role.
You will notice that the calendar of meetings features plenty of summits with major emerging countries. In July, a summit was held with South Africa and summits will take place – we hope – with Korea, and with China and Brazil in December. This series of meetings is a unique opportunity for the European Union to develop a dialogue with the major emerging countries on subjects of mutual interest, and the summit with India ties in perfectly with this approach.
I am aware that Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs recently took part in a fruitful workshop on European Union-India relations, which was attended by a number of experts. It has fanned a deep desire to enhance dialogue and cooperation between the European Union and India.
The Presidency is driven by the same will as Parliament. With a population of more than a billion, which should overtake that of China in 2025, and annual growth of more than 8% since 2005, India is set to become an essential partner of the European Union and we consequently want this summit to be an important step in deepening our relations with the country.
Since 2000, when our first summit was held, we have enlarged the scope of our dialogue and cooperation. The European Union is now India’s main trade partner. It is also one the biggest investors in the country and in many key sectors of its economy: energy, transport and telecommunications, in particular, and the summits we have held have contributed decisively towards strengthening our relations.
This was the case in 2004, when we raised our cooperation to the rank of strategic partnership. In 2005, we came up with an action plan to boost this partnership and, in 2006, a free trade agreement was concluded. However, we need to do more and ensure that our political dialogue and cooperation with India reflects the country’s true potential.
We hope that the Marseille Summit will serve this purpose. We also hope to strengthen our cooperation with India in areas that are currently priorities for the Union: climate change and energy. These discussions with our major emerging partners are far from easy, but we must have them and we must work with our Indian counterparts to achieve certain aims.
Firstly, we wish to adopt at this summit a new action plan that is shorter and more operational and enables us to adapt our partnership to the new concerns of energy security and sustainable development. We also want to secure future cooperation in the area of research and new technology, for example regarding solar energy and the ITER project.
This action plan should be accompanied by a work programme on energy, clean development and climate change and should envisage cooperation in the areas of energy efficiency, clean coal and renewable energy use."@en1
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