Friends of Europe
CAP: Britain has rejected outright calls by EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski to abolish its rebate. Claiming that "the rebate has lost its original justification" and is “lacking in legitimacy because farm subsidies have been substantially decreased”, the commissioner had signaled his intention to raise the issue at forthcoming budget talks.
10/09/2010 Read more
Economy: Luxembourg PM and chairman of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker has warned of competitiveness problems within the eurozone as fears grow that the economic recovery is losing momentum. The unemployment rate across the 16 countries which share the euro remains stuck at a record 10% and President of the Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso has identified the issue as one of the priorities to address over the coming year.
09/09/2010 Read more

EU Free Trade Agreement with India likely before the end of the year
Trade - Friday, July 30, 2010
An India-EU Free Trade Agreement, under negotiations for the past three years, is expected to be finalised by the end of this year, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said on Thursday. The two sides are keen to remove trade barriers in goods and services and investments across all sectors of the economy and have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $US200 billion in the next four years. A fresh series of talks will take place in Brussels during August aimed at concluding the deal.

So far negotiators have held nine rounds of free-trade discussions, but progress been hindered by key differences over IP rights and efforts by Brussels to link trade with climate and India's social sector performance which includes the question of child labour. India has consistently opposed incorporation of what it calls "extraneous" non-trade issues into the talks.

Nevertheless a breakthrough now seems possible. For instance the EU has proposed the idea of establishing a civil society advisory board, to address environmental and social sector performance. This represents a significant depature from its previous stance since it implies that such issues would not be a part of the formal FTA, but instead be taken care of by a separate body.

An FTA makes increasing economic sense for both parties given the sheer volumes of trade concerned. India's existing trade volume of $80.6 billion with the EU accounts for 21% cent of its total exports and 16 % of imports. Furthermore financial analysts Grant Thornton estimate bilateral trade will exceed Euro $91.4 billion by the end of 2010 and $207.6 billion by 2015.

George Osborne, the UK’s finance minister has also called on India and the EU to resolve their differences and force through a free trade deal by the start of next year. In an address to Indian bankers in Mumbai, said it was “imperative to reduce the costs of trade between Europe and linchpin power in the world economy.” Negotiations are now entering their fourth year,” he lamented. “We need to provide the leadership to complete the free trade agreement swiftly.”

The Hindu: India-E.U. trade pact likely this year: Sharma

Business Standard: India-EU FTA talks begin in Brussels next month

Financial Times: Osborne urges India to break EU trade logjam

Financial Express: India, EU meet in August with FTA on agenda