India-EU News & Analysis

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 03 Nov 2009 14:52

prad wrote:has there ever been a British President of the EU yet??? i ask b/c usually UK's interests don't collide with the broader EU interest of a strong, united Europe. Britain has time and again done everything it could to undermine a unified powerful Europe in the past few centuries.

this is a new role created by the recently ratified treaty of lisbon, this will be the first president. at the moment there is a 6 month rotating chair that goes around all member states, currently it is sweden

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 04 Nov 2009 11:21

Tanaji wrote:http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/556299.aspx
Malmö, Sweden: Growing Muslim Influence

So why are the Leftists and Anarchists making common cause with the Arabs?

And like all over the Western world, some on the Left, along with Arabs and Muslims and anarchists, have formed a political alliance against Israel and Jews. They demonstrate together, and in Sweden, they vote together. Muslims are a core constituency of the Left.

Swedish Democrats, who stand for traditional Christian values and limits on immigration, have been stigmatized by the Swedish media as fascist and bigoted.

Sounds very familiar.

sunnyP · Post by **sunnyP** » 29 Nov 2009 22:19

Not really Indian related but thought it was worth a post -

Swiss voters back ban on minarets

Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.

More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.

The proposal had been put forward by the Swiss People's Party, (SVP), the largest party in parliament, which says minarets are a sign of Islamisation.

The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes, in Bern, says the surprise result is very bad news for the Swiss government which also fears unrest among the Muslim community.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8385069.stm

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 30 Nov 2009 00:01

Sanjay M · Post by **Sanjay M** » 30 Nov 2009 06:50

Interesting take from WSJ on the Swiss Minaret vote:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 59110.html

tejas · Post by **tejas** » 01 Dec 2009 08:41

Not to nitpick but Switzerland is not in the EU. I didn't know where to post this news so I put it the geopolitical news thread when the story broke.

Cheers.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 02 Dec 2009 18:20

India to seal labour agreements

PANAJI: With the first labour mobility partnership agreement (LMPA) with Denmark in September this year, in a bid to facilitate safe and regular migration of Indian workers under its belt, India is now working out modalities to seal more such pacts with Sweden, France and Holland.

Stating that the government was keen to enhance the movement of skilled labour to newer countries, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs joint secretary, G Gurucharan said, "Mobility partnership is a new instrument and we intend to sign more agreements with European nations."

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the eight Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) conference of directors general of immigration on management of migration flows.

The pact opens up potential for recruitment of skilled and trained Indian workers to European countries. Earlier during the conference, ministry secretary, K Mohandas said that India had inked similar pacts with the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia.

"We'd like to see more skilled Indians going abroad," union minister of Indian overseas affairs, Vayalar Ravi said.

The framework for bilateral cooperation provides for recruitment through legal channels and safe practices, "bypassing the wily middleman", skill training, ensuring workers welfare and even pacts in academic and research work

Surya · Post by **Surya** » 03 Dec 2009 17:56

amazing hypocrisy in the world

galling to see the criticism of the swiss

First allow temples, churches in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait etc

then lets talk of mosques

Good on you Swiss

shame on Eu and some joker called Navi Pillay

Stan_Savljevic · Post by **Stan_Savljevic** » 03 Dec 2009 18:02

Surya wrote: some joker called Navi Pillay

Its a she, her name is Navaneetham Pillay, a third generation Tamil from South Africa. She is the chairperson for UN HR commission and called on India for "genocide" in the name of caste system, so much for someone who has a casteist last name.

Surya · Post by **Surya** » 03 Dec 2009 19:10

thanks stan

I am still retching at everyone (EU, UN, Vatican yada yada ) criticizing the Swiss

but slowly the Rest o fEurope will follow

it will be interesting

S.Gautam · Post by **S.Gautam** » 03 Dec 2009 20:05

shyamd wrote:India to seal labour agreements
PANAJI: With the first labour mobility partnership agreement (LMPA) with Denmark in September this year, in a bid to facilitate safe and regular migration of Indian workers under its belt, India is now working out modalities to seal more such pacts with Sweden, France and Holland.
...
"We'd like to see more skilled Indians going abroad," union minister of Indian overseas affairs, Vayalar Ravi said.

The framework for bilateral cooperation provides for recruitment through legal channels and safe practices, "bypassing the wily middleman", skill training, ensuring workers welfare and even pacts in academic and research work

Am I missing something or does this seem like a bad idea? Why give away workers? Do we get something out of this and is it temporary?

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 04 Dec 2009 02:38

^^^IT exports

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 09 Jan 2010 22:33

Not really an India-EU issue but I didn't know where else to put it.

Its interesting how far these guys are going to stamp Islam out. These french have turned into talibans themselves in trying to knock the islam out of the muslims.

-----

France to slap fine of $1100 on women in burqa

LONDON: France is formulating a strict new law under which women who wear full-length veils (burqa) in public places will have to pay a fine of over £700 ($1118).

The amount could be doubled for Muslim men who force their wives or other female members of their family to wear veils, reports the Daily Mail.

Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP Party in the French parliament, said the new legislation was intended to protect the "dignity" and "security" of women. He is set to file the draft law in the National Assembly after Sarkozy said veils are "not welcome" as they intimidate and alienate non-Muslims, especially in a secular country like France.

Cope said: "The wearing of the burqas will be subject to a fine, probably of the 4th class, which is to say 750 euros." He said the fine would apply to 'all people on the public street whose face is entirely covered".

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/worl ... 425856.cms

Rony · Post by **Rony** » 09 Jan 2010 22:57

Neshant wrote:Its interesting how far these guys are going to stamp Islam out. These french have turned into talibans themselves in trying to knock the islam out of the muslims.

The French are being true to their secularism. This law not only effects the muslims but christians and jews as well. It is the islamists and the dhimmi media which are showing this as uniquely anti-islamic which it is not .

BTW, i heard that apart from the three monotheistic religions and Buddhism, france does not recognize any other religion including Hinduism. Is that true ?

animesharma · Post by **animesharma** » 09 Jan 2010 23:33

France to slap fine of $1100 on women in burqa

What a world it is, one part fines you for wearing burka and another part kills you for not wearing one.
IMO, its nice approach by France. They are trying to bring down phobia among people from other people. They are not following the UK route to find ways based on religion, rather defining a code of conduct for people irrespective of religion, to make them look normal.

anuj · Post by **anuj** » 10 Jan 2010 01:12

Maybe the crackdown on islam is to provoke them.
Im guessing no other govt has taken extreme steps as france has. If they can ban minarets. If they can ban burkhas. I don't think they will be stopping there. Why would any country invite islamic fury? One single provocation could a random one. But two provocations? I think france has prepared itself and taken a stand.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 12 Jan 2010 10:51

From French press.
India moving
Poor translation but nevertheless.

This column inaugurates a regular collaboration of our journalist Guy Taillefer, now based in New Delhi. From the outset, our correspondent looks at the mess that is the democratic system of India.

On the bus Ajmer-Jaipur, nose pressed against the display of his cell phone, sat beside me a young man who was in his family to attend the wedding of his brother. Tell me later that he tried desperately to reach his girlfriend, apparently, was sulking. Typically, he studied in information technology. His father and mother taught Sanskrit in a university of Rajasthan. The modern boy and dominant caste made me clear that he heartily disapproved the Indian caste system. Maybe he told me what I wanted to hear. I assume, I said that you voted for the Congress Party (and its secular ideology) in the parliamentary election last spring. "No, for the BJP, he said. I can not stand Sonia Gandhi [the chief guardian of the party]. "The BJP? Party urban upper castes and Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim? "I know," he said with a smile is a bit contradictory. "

India has no monopoly on political behavior inconsistent, far from it. Except that here, as if the adverse effects of democratic life were exacerbated in the power thousand. It does not comes to mind to tell the Indians that they sin by discretion. Given the weight of numbers. The Indian system is, in simple quantitative terms, a gigantic shambles, an astounding maze in which they marry, confront and defeat hundreds of political parties. Nationally, they are so numerous, the Indians (who did the rest do not pray them to go to the polls), that the 700 million voters are invited to vote in four phases and over several days . Democracy monumental!

But even more fascinating that this disproportion is staggering numerical complexity of the political culture and the Indian company, produces scars left behind by the British Empire, but above sixty years of national independence was born in blood and l exodus of the Partition. In a word, as in a thousand, the Indians have a democracy of their own, which owes nothing to anyone for his victories - the least of which is to hold together a country where regionalism categorically diverse identities. Similarly, India has she to blame for its defeat.

***

What happens to India and what does it mean to be Indian? What to see Indian West Bengal with the Kerala? Meet they travel they will likely use English rather than Hindi, to speak. You can not imagine how the bookstores in New Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta are full of books probing with resilience throughout India, the nature of the collective personality. Uncompromising. This writer Rohinton Mistry, with the balance of the world. It is the writer and essayist, Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things), one of the most virulent critics of neoliberal development race that sweeps the country. To name just two of the most famous home.

The Indian company would be so much easier to understand if it was not as pragmatic, relativistic, along hierarchy down to the smallest detail. Nothing in India, told me an acquaintance who lives in Quebec Delhi for six years, is never completely white or completely black.

One of the most stimulating contributions to the debate, at least from the perspective of foreign lands, is perhaps that the former diplomat Pavan K. Varma, author of Being Indian (The Indian Challenge, Actes Sud, 2005), in which he embarked on a business frankly iconoclastic demystification of the Indian spiritual and its aura of timelessness that subjugate as tourists. Tremendous work of introspection. How many Indians, questioned Mr. Karma, do they reconcile their incredible indifference to the suffering of the poor and the unfairness of the caste system (the essayist calls "a system of except the most rigid in the world ") and their enthusiastic support for parliamentary democracy and its egalitarian principles?

He replied bluntly that "Indians are not democratic by instinct or temperament. Democracy, he writes, has survived and flourished in India because the Indians, from the humblest to the most powerful, quickly realized that it was primarily "the most effective instrument of upward mobility, d acquisition of personal power and wealth. "The new democratic order has not made much more egalitarian, he contends, but rather even more sensitive to calculation of power, which has become more uncertain and more volatile. So if the Indians continue to obey a worldview based on respect for sharp social hierarchies, it remains that the economic easing past twenty years helping the "old rigidities," as Varma, tend to dilute. This explains, for example, that Mayawati, a Dalit (untouchable), became prime minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India.

What is that India has perhaps never been so moving, so subtle as this trend. At another time, Gandhi had this answer to a disciple who complained of too frequent change of opinion, from one week to another: "Ah," replied the Mahatma is that I really learned from last week. "

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 14 Jan 2010 02:43

How to be anxious ---- Pratap Bhanu Mehta

But in some senses, the more anxiety inducing reverberations were being felt in Europe. The Danish cartoonist was attacked. The Nigerian bomber has reopened the debate over exactly why British universities are becoming an ideological catchment ground for would be radicals and terrorists. The small town of Wotton Bassett that has become famous for honouring British soldiers killed in combat, threatened to unleash another polarising discussion. A group called Islam4UK threatened a march in that town, ostensibly to draw attention to civilians being killed in the various wars on terror. Gordon Brown was forced to call this march disgusting; and the prospect of a town not being able to honour dead soldiers without disruption brought out the sense in which so many ordinary Britons are feeling under political siege.

The reason these events are of far more significance is this. They have the capacity to produce even more ideological polarisation through a vicious cycle of argument and counter argument. The self-righteous David Miliband had on his trip to India counselled on the need to be sensitive to minorities. This is sound policy. But his government has been quickly forced to confront questions about the line between being sensitive, and tolerating ideologies that jeopardise liberties. This is becoming an increasingly treacherous terrain to negotiate in Europe. And this has to be said as forcefully as possible. The Danish cartoons may have been offensive to some and in bad taste. But easy compromises on the issue of freedom of expression, or legitimising those who attack that value on the grounds that their religious sensitivities have been offended, should be unacceptable. The attack on the Danish cartoonist was not an attack on a prejudiced European, it was an attack on our values and principles.

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 15 Jan 2010 04:19

France should pay for rebuilding Haiti

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and- ... s-problem/

When it came to Haiti, France was first a brutal colonizer, and then a usurious bully. Tunku Varadarajan on why it’s time for reparations.

As Haitians lurch destitute in the rubble, and as governments, churches, and NGOs do the best they can to bring succor to Haiti's hell, a vivid solution to the country's needs presents itself, one so obvious and irrefutable—so resonantly just—that it must be advocated with the greatest of energy: France must repay its colonialist debt to Haiti by paying for much of the island country’s reconstruction.

Haiti's chronic impoverishment began at its birth in 1804, when, having overthrown its French rulers in a bloody, 12-year slave revolt, the new-born nation was subjected to crippling blockades and embargoes. This economic strangulation continued until 1825, when France offered to lift embargoes and recognize the Haitian Republic if the latter would pay restitution to France—for loss of property in Haiti, including slaves—of 150 million gold francs. The sum, about five times Haiti's export revenue for 1825, was brutal, but Haiti had no choice: pay up or perish over many more years of economic embargo, not to mention face French threats of invasion and reconquest. To pay, Haiti borrowed money at usurious rates from France, and did not finish paying off its debt until 1947, by which time its fate as the Western Hemisphere's poorest country had been well and truly sealed.

In this era of multibillion dollar bailouts of private banking institutions, $22 billion should scarcely raise a Gallic eyebrow. But to Haiti, the sum would be a godsend.
France must now return every last cent of this money to Haiti. In 2004, at the time of the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence, the Haitian government put together a legal brief in support of a formal demand for "restitution" from France. The sum sought was nearly $22 billion, a number arrived at by calculations that included a notionally equitable annual interest rate. (For a full account of the calculation, read Jose de Cordoba's excellent news story in the Wall Street Journal, published on Jan. 2, 2004.) The demand was made by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a firebrand ex-preacher who was forced out of office by a violent uprising that February. His successors, Boniface Alexandre and Gerard Latortue, controversially chose to renounce Haiti's claim for restitution/reparations. (There was, of course, much pressure exerted on them by France, which had found Aristide's demand politically disconcerting.)

• Plus: Mark Leon Goldberg on Haiti’s recent history, and why the country deserves our support. This last act of renunciation weakens Haiti's legal case against France, notwithstanding the fact that the treaty under which France gouged 150 million gold francs from Haiti was clearly unconscionable and executed under duress. But this story is not one of law and legality alone, nor even one of wealth and poverty. (France's GDP is $2.85 trillion, while Haiti's is a mere $6.95 billion.) It is, rather, one of historical justice and political morality: No one can dispute that an extortionate and bullying treaty, concluded at a time when France was an imperial hyper-puissance and Haiti a friendless fledgling, is an ugly stain on France's national conscience.

The money involved is not a sum that will give sleepless nights to Christine Lagarde (France's finance minister) or Bernard Kouchner (its foreign minister) or President Nicolas Sarkozy. In this era of multibillion dollar bailouts of private banking institutions, $22 billion should scarcely raise a Gallic eyebrow. But to Haiti, the sum would be a godsend.

More than that, however, this is money that is Haiti's own. As Haitians lie prostrate, buried under the rubble of their nation, France must do the moral thing, the just thing, the civilized thing: France must write Haiti a reparations check for $22 billion.

sanjaykumar · Post by **sanjaykumar** » 15 Jan 2010 04:34

France must do the moral thing, the just thing, the civilized thing

Yes I bet my last farthing France will do just that.

Karan Dixit · Post by **Karan Dixit** » 15 Jan 2010 07:14

The India-France nuclear pact has formally become operational even as New Delhi and Washington are still struggling with finalising details of a key reprocessing pact required to implement their nuclear deal.

http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/588647

Malayappan · Post by **Malayappan** » 25 Jan 2010 11:58

Cross Posting from the China Thread

Good One. Scales seem to drop from the eyes of some people! As BC tweeted recently peaceful rise of China means everyone else remain peaceful while they rise!
Europe and an inscrutable China from the Economist
Some quotables -
their strongest words are reserved for China, accused of a refusal to accept anything touching on its sovereignty and of secretly inciting small, poor allies to obstruct a deal
China was amazingly rude at Copenhagen, sending a deputy minister to shout at with Mr Obama, for instance. Such assertiveness punctures happy Euro-dreams of a multipolar world.
The good news is that European and American views of China are converging. Arguments about engagement or containment now sound quaint, and fantasies involving China as Europe’s ally against American hegemony sound worse. China looks like a giant that has every right to rise, yet rejects many values that Europe and America share.
Read it all!

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 25 Jan 2010 12:25

The India-France nuclear pact has formally become operational even

These guys missed the boat by not dealing with India a couple of years prior to the wheeling and dealing with the US. The plan to slip in at the last minute is not cool. US has already extracted all kinds of purchase agreements of US made reactors from India.

Anyway nuclear energy is too damn expensive.

KrishnaMu · Post by **KrishnaMu** » 26 Jan 2010 02:24

Is Indian Embassey Website in Ireland was Hacked by China???

Origianl website: http://www.indianembassy.ie

Google search : site:indianembassy.ie

Who is Record

.ie domains are maintained by IEDR not by chinese company ? Whats going on lads??

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 27 Jan 2010 09:57

In trying to stamp out islam, the french government are turning into Talibans themselves.

--

French parliament report calls for full ban on Islamic burqa
AFP, 26 January 2010, 04:15pm

PARIS: A French parliament report called on Tuesday for a ban on the full Islamic veil in all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices, saying the burqa was an affront to French values.

"The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable," the report released by a parliament commission said. "We must condemn this excess."

After six months of hearings, the panel of 32 lawmakers recommended a ban on the face-covering veil in all state-run institutions and offices, the broadest move yet to restrict Muslim dress in France.

The commission called on parliament to adopt a formal resolution stating that the burqa was "contrary to the values of the republic" and proclaiming that "all of France is saying 'no' to the full veil."

Women who turn up at government offices wearing the full veil should be denied services such as a work visa, residency papers or French citizenship, the report recommended.

The panel however stopped short of proposing broad legislation to outlaw the burqa on the streets or in shopping centres after cautioning that such a move would have to be reviewed by the courts to establish its legality.

"The wearing of the full veil is the tip of the iceberg," said communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, the chair of the commission.

"There are scandalous practices hidden behind this veil," said Gerin who vowed to fight the "gurus"

seeking to export a racial brand of fundamentalism and sectarianism to France.

Home to Europe's biggest Muslim minority, estimated at about six million, France is being closely watched at a time of particular unease over Islam, three months after Swiss voters approved a ban on minarets.

President Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone for the debate in June when he declared the burqa "not welcome" in France and described it as a symbol of women's "subservience" that cannot be tolerated in a country that considers itself a human rights leader.

anuj · Post by **anuj** » 27 Jan 2010 14:42

Neshant wrote:In trying to stamp out islam, the french government are turning into Talibans themselves.

Interesting assessment. The original taliban blow up schools, punish men who shave beards, punish women who refuse to wear burqa's, behead people, chop off limbs... etc etc. How do you possibly compare these french activities with the taliban? Some time back, even your "neutral" timesnow had circulated a label called "hindu taliban" after the ram sene incident, a label beyond reason. Event's like these, i wonder if you can differentiate between indian english and chinese english.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 28 Jan 2010 09:27

Has'nt the French changed the "Burqa" law a bit? If I read reports correctly, the women would only be fined if they are seen in Burqa in public places (schools, offices, public transport etc.). They are free to wear any thing (or not wear any thing) in their private lives (homes, religious places and what not). I feel the law then is just saying that "your freedom, ends just before my nose".

Compare this with the recent Supreme Court order stating that faces of Muslim women cannot be covered when coming in to vote. They have to be positively identified. But then they have the right to abstain from voting (stay indoors).

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 30 Jan 2010 16:14

On that note our EU headed government is allowing a 10 member team from EU to inspect Kandhamal.

Why? Last I heard Kandhamal was part of india and Indians of all religions were well Indian.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 31 Jan 2010 07:36

IOL: France has come to a juncture where it has to decide whether it wants Indian contracts or Paki contracts.

India: MRCA(they conceed rafale not favourite to win), Mirage upgrade deal, Indian purchase of UAE Mirage's.
Pak: JF-17 deal. 250 ordered from chin, first 50 fully chinese. Pak want thales RC400 and MICA missile as well as french to integrate the RD93 engines as they did it for the South African AF already. They want similar stuff to the Taiwanese Mirage 2k-5. Negotiations been going on for 5 years.

KrishnaMu · Post by **KrishnaMu** » 01 Feb 2010 04:50

KrishnaMu wrote:Is Indian Embassey Website in Ireland was Hacked by China???

Origianl website: http://www.indianembassy.ie

Google search : site:indianembassy.ie

Who is Record

.ie domains are maintained by IEDR not by chinese company ? Whats going on lads??

FALSE ALARM. Looks like www is not added to dns/network records (something like that)

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 04 Feb 2010 03:46

What is the EU delegation doing in India
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/stor ... en+Patnaik

lakshmikanth · Post by **lakshmikanth** » 04 Feb 2010 04:08

Jarita wrote:What is the EU delegation doing in India
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/stor ... en+Patnaik

As mentioned by someone else in the Forum, I think this amounts to us handing over our claim of sovereignty to an external agency, by letting them do the assesement instead of us. Reflects extremely poorly on our Govt and Babu Pinheads at the top

Wonder if we should send an Indian Delegation into Italy/Romania to study the marginalization and Ghettoization of the Roma people in the hands of the Oiropeans.

KaranR · Post by **KaranR** » 04 Feb 2010 15:00

May be the Congress rulers want to create anti Hindu or BJP impression in the West. No doubt they[EU] will write in the Western press and the Indian media will join in like sheep’s and also write anti Hindu or BJP articles to undermine their chances in the elections.

Congress party game: You[EU] back us and we will back the West; otherwise if the Hindu get in ,West and the Christians are in trouble!

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 04 Feb 2010 16:53

Sachin wrote: Compare this with the recent Supreme Court order stating that faces of Muslim women cannot be covered when coming in to vote. They have to be positively identified. But then they have the right to abstain from voting (stay indoors).

The beards have already come back to say that such photos have to be mandatory taken by female photographers (and with female cameras onlee

)

How much further will our courts be subverted with irrelevant pinpricks?

Jarita · Post by **Jarita** » 19 Feb 2010 03:27

This is scary as hell
Most important portion is

"I learned over the years Artan (the orphanage) received a check for 10,000 pounds a month from the government. From this money, 8000 was sent to Rome (the vatican).
http://translate.google.ro/translate?js ... l=ro&tl=en

A report of the Committee on Preventing abuse of children in Ireland has revealed a terrible truth: more than 30,000 children in orphanages run by the Irish Catholic church have been sexually abused, beaten and starved by those who must care for them, from childhood to maturity, according to The Times.

Ameet · Post by **Ameet** » 06 Mar 2010 00:25

Interview with EU Trade Commissioner on free trade agreement, debt issue

India is negotiating its most ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU). Trade Commissioner of EU, Karel De Gucht, met Commerce Minister Anand Sharma on March 4 2010 to resolve and wind up the FTA talks by October 2010.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/econom ... 45034.html

Neshant · Post by **Neshant** » 07 Mar 2010 01:12

way too much climate change crap coming from the EU

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 12 Mar 2010 10:37

India rejects social clauses in the under-discussion FTA

India has rejected the European Union's demand on including social clauses such as labour and environmental standards in the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying there are other forums to discuss these issues.

Responding to the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Karel De Gucht's recent statement that he was hopeful of addressing social issues in the FTA with India through “appropriate language,” the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar said, “There are certain non-negotiables for us. If they (EU) don't accept FTAs without social clauses, then I'd say tough luck.”

“If you (the EU) want to do a bilateral trade deal, it comes on terms which are acceptable to both, otherwise it doesn't come,” Dr Khullar told Business Line.

He said at present the proposed India-EU pact is not even called an FTA, adding, “It is only called a broad-based bilateral trade and investment agreement.”

This implies that New Delhi will go in a phased manner to liberalise its trade in goods and services with 27 member countries of the EU. On full implementation, FTA entails barrier-free flow of goods between the signatories.

Mr De Gucht had said the inclusion of labour and environment issues in the pact is not specific to India as the EU has these it in all its FTAs.

“The European Parliament won't agree to a deal that's silent on these,” he had said.

Dr Khullar said India will not allow backdoor entry of non-trade related issues in its FTAs and this was made clear to the EU in the recent discussions too.

“Whether these issues go under the guise of sustainable development or whether they come in the form of labour or environmental standards, our answer is a simple ‘no',” he said.

He said allowing such non-trade issues in the FTA may lead to the talks getting diverted to issues like human rights, minority rights and animal welfare.

“Is the FTA about trade or politics, the EU should make up its mind,” he said.

There are forums other than bilateral and multi-lateral trade negotiations where the EU can raise these issues, Dr Khullar said.

For the first time, I have seen a tough-talking Indian negotiator.

biswas · Post by **biswas** » 12 Mar 2010 13:11

SSridhar wrote:India rejects social clauses in the under-discussion FTA
India has rejected the European Union's demand on including social clauses such as labour and environmental standards in the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA), saying there are other forums to discuss these issues.

Responding to the EU Trade Commissioner, Mr Karel De Gucht's recent statement that he was hopeful of addressing social issues in the FTA with India through “appropriate language,” the Commerce Secretary, Dr Rahul Khullar said, “There are certain non-negotiables for us. If they (EU) don't accept FTAs without social clauses, then I'd say tough luck.”

“If you (the EU) want to do a bilateral trade deal, it comes on terms which are acceptable to both, otherwise it doesn't come,” Dr Khullar told Business Line.

He said at present the proposed India-EU pact is not even called an FTA, adding, “It is only called a broad-based bilateral trade and investment agreement.”

This implies that New Delhi will go in a phased manner to liberalise its trade in goods and services with 27 member countries of the EU. On full implementation, FTA entails barrier-free flow of goods between the signatories.

Mr De Gucht had said the inclusion of labour and environment issues in the pact is not specific to India as the EU has these it in all its FTAs.

“The European Parliament won't agree to a deal that's silent on these,” he had said.

Dr Khullar said India will not allow backdoor entry of non-trade related issues in its FTAs and this was made clear to the EU in the recent discussions too.

“Whether these issues go under the guise of sustainable development or whether they come in the form of labour or environmental standards, our answer is a simple ‘no',” he said.

He said allowing such non-trade issues in the FTA may lead to the talks getting diverted to issues like human rights, minority rights and animal welfare.

“Is the FTA about trade or politics, the EU should make up its mind,” he said.

There are forums other than bilateral and multi-lateral trade negotiations where the EU can raise these issues, Dr Khullar said.
For the first time, I have seen a tough-talking Indian negotiator.

AoA, Dr Khullar for Defence Minister!

jagga · Post by **jagga** » 26 Mar 2010 03:07

Pak must act against terror groups, says Germany

In a strong indictment of Pakistan, Germany said on Thursday that groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba were a creation of the Inter-Services-Intelligence and Islamabad will have to satisfy India that it was acting against the terror outfit if it wants to improve relations with its neighbour.

"I would agree that it (Mumbai attacks) was not only the aim of just LeT but also of those who were behind it. ISI has been creating such groups as General Zia-ul-Haq had said: bleed India from a thousand cuts. "In the fight against terrorism and LeT, there is no alternative to improving the situation between two nations but for Pakistan to give satisfaction to India that it takes action against these groups," Bernd Mutzelburg, German special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said.