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A social and human rights pillar to the India-EU map to 2025

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Imagine if the announcement on waiving the intellectual property rights of the COVID-19 vaccines would have come from Brussels rather than Washington, writes Simone Galimberti.

Maybe just the day before the EU-India Summit in Porto or perhaps it could have been announced live during the virtual summit.

India, with South Africa, took a leading role in demanding an uplifting of the patents’ rights but till the Biden administration announcement, their request was always rejected and the EU was among those vocally defending big pharma patents’ rights.

With the Biden White House policy reversal, the Europeans wasted a gold opportunity that could have eased their way into raising less glamorous but certainly important topics for an EU that professes to live up to certain values embraced as foundational to its external relation work.

Instead, while all the attention over the summit is veering towards trade and green investments, we are running the risk of overlooking the rights and social dimensions of the relationship between the India and the EU.

Talking about human rights, in particular, is going to be a tricky task for the EU leaders because is an issue where Prime Minister Modi is not going to be so accommodative nor inclined to act.

It is true that recently a low key 9th EU-India Human Rights Dialogue was held in Delhi, an instrument that was reactivated after seven years but the level of commitment of the EU towards universal rights should find a much bigger space than the just two short paragraph found in the latest strategic document endorsed by both parties, the EU-India Strategic Partnership: A road map to 2025.

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Fortunately the European Parliament, despite some shenanigans amid pressure from the India Embassy to the European Union, issued a recommendation on the 29th of April 2021 expressing its concerns over the situation of human rights in India.

In a speech on 29 April on behalf of High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell at the European Parliament, Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Home Affairs said “Human rights and democratic values are also at the heart of our engagement with India. Let me assure you that the European Union raises these matters with India through different channel”.

The EU Leaders should take this statement to the letter but, though soft attempts at raising the issue will be certainly made by the Europeans during the summit, we cannot reasonably expect them to do the heavy lifting on this despite widespread criticism around the world and with some of the major human rights organizations launching an appeal to the EU to take human rights seriously while dealing with India.

Given the fact that the EU must elevate its relationship with India, what could be the most effective formula to do that?

In addition to discussions at political levels, human rights should be vigorously tackled at multiple levels through interactions by experts and practitioners in Track II format initiatives but also through a bottom up “people to people” human rights agenda with more support for grassroots rights defenders.

At the same time a stronger “official” voice from Brussels needs to be raised when serious abuses occur, be the worrying developments on the Citizenship Amendment Act or a national registry of citizenship registry or the unjust imprisonment an octogenarian Jesuit activist priest or the recent forced closing of the Amnesty International office last September without mentioning the abuses happening in Kashmir.

Complementary to pursuit a bolder human rights agenda, embracing other dimensions of a broader India and EU social agenda is not only paramount on its own but can also reinforce the former.

For example, a rethinking of the EU-India Forum that last time was held in 2012 could be a first step.

Besides its Track II dimension that should be strengthened and enlarged, the Forum could become an overarching framework with an ambitious civil society agenda founded on continuous opportunities for interactions and exchange among people, especially youths, especially now that webinars and virtual conference have become a new norm.

More youth engagement among youth could lead, with some vision, to an 'India-EU Youth Strategy', creating a new level of bilateral ambitions focused on the future generations.

New programs are needed but also existing initiatives could be dusted off and revitalized in order to lay the foundations for such youth strategy.

For example, it will be significant to revamp the Joint Declaration on Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM), giving a boost to students and young professional mobility, including exchange programs, mutual recognition of academic qualifications and recognition of academic skills.

In addition, can the EU find among its Foreign Policy Instruments, FPI, the adequate financial space for a major boost in funding for a new 'Tagore -Erasmus Programme', allowing a quantum leap in the student exchange between Indian and Europe?

Another area of interest would be for the EU member states to carve out, from the broader and much more complex to negotiate migration pact, the revamping of the EU Blue Card, a scheme that in theory attracts in the common European job market young professionals from third states that it is still well below its potential.

While in the area of research and analysis, a dynamic partnership among think tanks, the EU-India Think Tanks Twinning Initiative, is currently being undertaken, what could be done to better include and involve Indian universities in the Horizon Europe, the European Research Council, the Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowship programs as suggested in the recently released report by the European Parliament concerning the future of EU-India relations?

The European University Initiative that enables cross nations consortia of universities within the EU could encourage, with additional grants, collaborations and exchange programs with Indian counterparts, laying the stones for broader initiatives in what could become a Joint Indo European Educational Area.

Imagining a new and different India - EU relationship requires ambition.

The EU has successfully managed to move past a narrow mono dimensional approach to its partnership with India, shifting from on aid assistance frame then upgraded into a broader economic framework.

With security and defense now dominating the agenda together with trade and investment, there is a need to create additional layers for what could become a true force for the promotion of multilateralism, enhancing a potential geopolitical partnership that can become a model for others like minded democracies to follow.

Yet, it won’t be possible to achieve such deep and ingrained level of cooperation without a steadfast commitment for shared values based on trust and the adequate “intimacy” and comfort indispensable to express divergent opinions, including the willingness to share and absorb criticisms based on fairness and equality among partners.

While Prime Minister Modi should rightly not refrain himself from his disappointment over the EU’s position in relation to the vaccines’ patents, the EU leaders should not shy away from embracing an effective social agenda centered around human rights, human development and more educational opportunities for youth.

Thinking about it, there is no better place of doing it than in Porto where the EU leaders will try to chart a new course for strengthening its social union.

The summit can be remembered for adding a new layer to the cooperation with India, one centered on the respects of universal rights and shared values.

Certainly, the EU-India Strategic Partnership: A road map to 2025 is in need of some bold changes.

Simone Galimberti is based in Kathmandu. He writes on social inclusion, youth development, regional integration and the SDGs in the context of Asia Pacific.

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