Officials Thrash Out Agenda For Indo-European Union Summit

An eclectic group of Indians and Europeans, constituting the participants of the India-European Union round table, met last week in Portugal to discuss issues that are likely to be raised at the India-EU summit scheduled for later this year.

The group was set up in January 2001 with a mandate to boldly go where civil servants dare not.

Under its terms of reference, the round table ?enjoys the privilege of having direct access to the highest level of government/EU institutions? and, in particular, to the India-European Union summit, which is held at the level of prime ministers.

The Indian side included Mr Tarun Das, director-general of Confederation of Indian Industry; Mr Amit Burman, president of the Indian Confederation of Food and Trade Industry; mr DK Nair, director-general of ICMF; Mr R Venugopal, working president of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh; Prof Goverdhan Mehta, director of the Indian Institute of Science; Mr Vir Sanghvi, editor of The Hindustan Times, and Mr Anup Wadhavan, director for economic affairs in the Prime Minister?s Office.

Last week?s meeting of the round table was the fourth. It was timed to allow its members to draft their recommendations to the third India-EU summit. When Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and his Danish counterpart Anders Fogh Rasmussen, representing the EU, meet in Copenhagen on October 10 they will have before them proposals for – investment promotion in the context of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, and Indo-EU co-operation in food and agribusiness.

The former were drafted by Tarun Das and Clive Wilkinson, former-president of European Confederation of European Spirits Producers, the latter by Amit Burman, in the absence of Dr. Amit Mitra, Ficci?s secretary-general, and Paul Geraads, special adviser to the Dutch agricultural employers? association.

The proposals were adopted unanimously by the Round Table, although not without a good deal of animated debate and much toing and froing between drafting groups and the two co-chairman, NN Vohra, Director, India International Centre, and G Frerichs, president of the EESC and member of the Management Board of the German Foreign Trade Confederation. Strong opposition by the trade union representatives threatened to derail the proposals at a crucial moment in the debate.

The Round Table?s recommendations on investment promotion call for more information on investment possibilities; special support for small businesses, and a code of conduct on the obligations of companies involved in foreign direct investment (FDI). The Round Table also expressed its conviction that India and the EU will play an important role in the WTO negotiations for a multilateral investment framework, bearing in mind India?s particular concerns on the need to manage investment to suit the country?s development needs.

The recommendations to the India-EU Summit on food and agribusiness call for increased co-operation in agricultural extension services and research, on the one hand, and food safety legislation on the other. The Round Table also favours mutual recognition of the Indian and European certification systems, and co-operation on food processing and production technology, especially in post-harvest management and total foodchain linkage management.

The Round Table?s recommendations for the creation of an India-EU civil society Internet forum, and the exchange of journalists, went through on the nod, as it were. This was because they had been agreed in advance by Vir Sanghvi and his European counterpart, Mrs. Anne-Marie Sigmund, a lawyer and president of Austria?s Federal committee for the professions. The use of modern communication technologies will, it is hoped, draw Indian and European civil society closer together, with the help of the media.

The Round Table?s fourth meeting was also an occasion for stocktaking, which was led by India?s former ambassador to the EU, C. Dasgupta, and chairman of the Brussels-based Migration and Policy Group Sukhdev Sharma. The external affairs ministry and the European Commission, the EU?s executive arm, the Round Table?s official promoters, are satisfied with its performance.

So is the India-EU Summit. In their joint communique at the end of the second Summit in New Delhi last November, the two prime ministers noted, ?We appreciate in particular the recommendations of the second successful meeting of the India-EU Round Table of eminent personalities.? They believed that the Round Table, together with the projected India-EU think-tank network, ?will promote a dynamic civil society in India-EU relations.?

Even so, the joint communique was more forthcoming as regards the recommendations submitted by the India-EU Business Summit, held in New Delhi the day before the political summit. The two prime ministers even called on the joint commission, set up under the 1994 EU-India co-operation agreement, ?to ensure the efficient follow up? of the Business Summit?s recommendations. In fact a meeting here last week of Indian and EU officials, on the one hand, and business representatives on the other, fine-tuned the recommendations from the Business Summit. They will now be re-submitted to the Copenhagen Summit, for speedy implementation.

This points to the need for co-operation between the Round Table and the Business Summit. Such co-operation may be said to exist informally, given that Mr Das and Mr Mitra are both members of the Round Table and largely responsible, through CII and FICCI, for the organisation of the business summits. Co-operation with the emerging think tank network would also be profitable: the academics who will constitute the network could provide both the Round Table and the Business Summit with working papers to guide them in their discussions.

It is clear that by allowing civil society to provide input to the policy shaping and decision making process, the Indian government and European Union have taken a bold step. At the Round Table?s inaugural meeting Jaswant Singh even told its members, ?You?re free to tell us where we are limiting our thinking and ought to move forward much faster, in not only economic and political areas but also areas which we ourselves might not even have addressed.?

The Round Table has not yet taken up this challenge. It could start by promoting a much-needed vision of India-EU relations.