Press Release: EU- India Summit: setting the path for a growing strategic partnership

The 8th EU-India Summit will take place on 30 November 2007 in New Delhi. This year’s Summit will confirm in many respects the strengthening of EU-India relations: on the agenda are issues like trade, energy, climate change, WTO talks, as well as regional issues such as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Africa, the Middle East, and Pakistan. It is expected that the two sides will sign the renewal of their cooperation agreement on science and technology as well as a Memorandum of Understanding on EC- India development cooperation 2007 – 2010 amounting to 260 million euro covering health, education, civil aviation and academic and cultural cooperation. In addition, the EC will also be providing 7 million euro for the creation of a European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) in New Delhi to foster links between the business and scientific communities from both sides. On 29th November, in the margins of the Summit, the EU-India Business summit will take place. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, and José Socrates, Prime Minister of Portugal, will meet with Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson will also participate in the Summit.

• Primary Source

European Commission: SPEECH/07/769: Europe and indispensable India http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/07/769&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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