EU official emphasises importance of free trade agreement between India-EU

Anthony Agotha, Ambassador at Large-Special Envoy for Climate and Environment, European External Action Service, highlighted the EU-India free trade agreement negotiations. With backing from leaders like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Agotha emphasised the importance of this agreement for both parties.

While speaking with ANI, Agotha said, “Well, what I understand is from President von der Leyen from the European Commission and Prime Minister Modi that both have given the political signal that there should be a renewed impetus to get this free trade agreement across the finish line, and I think that’s a very important political push now the negotiators have to follow up in that spirit “

He added, “Obviously, every free trade agreement with any other country is tailored to the specific situations of those countries, and I’m absolutely confident that we will get there, and I think it’s also very important that we get there for the interests of both the EU and India.”

Agotha also highlighted the European Union’s Green Deal and underscored how the EU has “decoupled” economic growth from emissions.

While addressing the media on Wednesday, Agotha said, “We (EU) are reliable, we have the rule of law, we have the biggest internal market, and together with you, the two biggest democracies, open markets, pluralist societies, we are here to stay… We started the Green Deal, we put it through the wind tunnel because the EU needs its competitiveness. We smoothened our green deal with our clean industrial deal, our affordable energy action package.”

“We decoupled our economic growth from our emissions. Since 1990, the EU economy has grown by 68 per cent. And limited emissions by 30 per cent and we are going to stay on that course. We are going to stay that because we believe in it, because there is no way back to what we call a Russian-fueled, fossil-fueled economy in Europe. It’s not going to happen,” Agotha said.