EU-India trade deal could be finalised in early 2011

Barroso says deal would be key to global economic recovery

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, said today that he hoped to agree a trade and investment deal with India in the first part of next year.

Speaking after an EU-India summit in Brussels on 10 December, Barosso said: “Today, we have agreed on the basic contours of an ambitious agreement, and to give the final political push to these talks. Our aim is to conclude negotiations next spring or in any case as early as possible during 2011.”

’Path-breaking’ agreement

Barroso said he hoped the agreement could be formalised by the time of the next EU-India summit in New Delhi in 2011. “I am confident that, with the necessary political will, we will be able to hail a path-breaking free-trade agreement when we meet next year in Delhi. Let us seal the deal in 2011,” he said.

Barroso, who met the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, said reaching a deal on a free-trade argeement would “bring together markets of one and a half billion people”. It would be a “key contribution to the global recovery” and a signal “for global openness” and “against protectionism”, he said.

Barroso who was attending the summit hosted by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, also said that the two sides had given renewed impetus to co-operation in the energy field. Barroso highlighted the potential of solar energy in which European companies were world leaders.