The European Union and India held their third Trade and Tech Council (TCC) in Brussels on Wednesday (15 July). At a time when genuine, trusted partnerships are increasingly hard to come by, both sides are leaning further into a relationship they see as strategically vital.
The meeting was co-chaired by three Commissioners, Henna Virkkunen, Maroš Šefčovič and Ekaterina Zaharieva, alongside three Indian ministers, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of State Jitin Prasada, underlining how many portfolios this partnership now touches.
Since the TTC’s set-up in 2022, it has become India’s only such framework with any global partner, and both sides used the meeting to agree on upgrading its current format, with a detailed governance structure to follow later this year.
Alongside the TTC talks, Minister Goyal said negotiations on the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are moving toward a conclusion, with a deal expected to be signed later this year.
Perhaps the biggest headline was on research. The two sides agreed to formally start negotiations on India joining Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship €93.5 billion research and innovation programme, aiming to conclude before the end of 2026. Afterwards, Indian researchers and innovators would fully participate in the programme, cementing collaboration in R&D.
Semiconductors were another major theme. Both sides want more resilient, trustworthy chip supply chains, and agreed to hold a joint roundtable at Semicon India 2026. More technically, they’ll explore linking design facilities under the India Semiconductor Mission with pilot production lines under the EU’s Chips Act, potentially giving Indian chip designers cheaper, faster access to advanced process design kits and silicon prototyping.
Electric vehicles got their own dedicated initiative: the first-ever EU-India Innovation Hub, focused on EV charging technology and testing, run jointly by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and India’s Automotive Research Association. It builds on a second workshop held earlier this year at the JRC’s E-mobility Lab in Ispra, Italy, and aims to connect testing labs, standards bodies and startups on both sides.
On clean tech more broadly, the two sides highlighted €60 million in joint research funding over four years, backing projects on waste-to-hydrogen, marine pollution monitoring across 39 pilot sites, and EV battery recycling. A cross-border “ideathon” on marine plastic pollution drew 93 participants in 19 teams, with winning ideas now getting mentoring support.
Startups also featured prominently, with a new Deep-Tech Startup Partnership bringing together the European Innovation Council and Startup India, plus early talk of a “Blue Valleys” initiative to build sector-specific industrial clusters.
On the digital front, the two sides will keep working toward interoperable digital trust systems, including a possible pilot connecting the EU Digital Identity Wallet with India’s DigiLocker, alongside continued cooperation on AI, high-performance computing, quantum technology and 6G standards.
Goyal described the TTC and the FTA as “mutually reinforcing instruments.” With the next ministerial meeting already scheduled for New Delhi in 2027, the EU-India relationship looks set to keep deepening across trade, technology and research all at once.
