India good destination for production, an example of ‘smart’ regulation: EU Commissioner Today World News

EU Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius sees the partnership between India and the EU as ‘limitless’. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“In Europe, sometimes we are very good in over-regulating and the current European Commission is very strong on the agenda of simplification of regulations,” said Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence and Space, in a conversation with The Hindu. The European Union (EU) can not only look at India as a “good destination” for production and capacity expansion, but also as “an example” of how to make regulation more smart, he added.

From an economic point of view, the 21st Century, apart from being the “Century of Space”, will also be the “Century of India”, he further said, adding the partnership between India and the EU was “limitless”.

“There are plenty of platforms where we can put very clear proposals, both short term and long term, and how we can develop this cooperation and partnership between India and the EU, which would be beneficial for both sides, and beneficial globally and internationally,” Mr. Kubilius said.

Strategic Pact

He identified the strategic pact on security and defence proposed by Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, on the lines of the EU’s pact with Japan and South Korea; the new strategic space dialogue; and the forthcoming negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement that Ms. Von Der Leyen and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to conclude by the year-end, as various possibilities. The two sides are also set to hold the India-EU Summit by the end of the year, wherein they expect to renew the current Strategic Roadmap for 2020-2025.

On the regulatory front, he said over-regulation was impacting competitiveness in Europe, and they had since proposed simplification. One of the challenges for the European defence industry in ramping up was not funding, which was always an issue but can be resolved, but “how to build a factory”.

“It takes so much of time and here again, India could be very attractive,” Mr. Kubilius said, adding they heard that some Indian businesses can build factories in 12 months, which would take four years in Europe.

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In an unprecedented visit, the EU President Ursula von der Leyen, accompanied by 22 members of the College of Commissioners, visited India last week. Defence was a major focus area, and the two leaders agreed on further focused discussions on defence industry and policy to explore opportunities from new initiatives and programmes.

Mr. Kubilius termed the geopolitical situation as “turbulent times”, referring to the Russian war against Ukraine. “There are a lot of intelligence services publicly reporting that Russia can be ready to start new oppression against EU member states before 2030. So it brings, for Europeans, a very clear understanding that we need to ramp up our preparedness, our capabilities, our defence industry, defence production and so on.”

Indo-Pacific stability

Elaborating, he said that it was not Russia alone that was creating all the possible threats to Europe. “But we see also some kind of, what they call, axis of aggressive authoritarians. Starting from Russia, we have Iran, North Korea, and China is not far away from that axis. That creates possible instabilities here in the Indo-Pacific. That is why we need to look into joint efforts for possibly how to guarantee security in this region, not just for India.”

Adding that India played a very important role in the region, Mr. Kubilius said the Indo-Pacific was also important for the EU as it was very important for their economic development.