On 10 December, the annual EU-India summit is held in Brussels where political leaders hope to agree on the broad shape of an EU-India free trade agreement and give the negotiations a final push towards conclusion. A parallel big business summit has been organised alongside, and will provide crucial support – while more and more small businesses and MEPs oppose the deal.
At first glance, the business summit looks like it has been organised by industry lobby groups from the EU and India. But internal EU Commission reports obtained through access to information requests show that the EU administration is actively involved in preparations for the event, including the messaging and follow-up. It is lobbying hard to make the forum a key strategic meeting for consensus building and co-operation between Europe and India's corporate elites. And the Commission has provided millions of Euros from its development fund to facilitate this process.
In EU trade policy, the Commission has a clear track record in what an academic has called “reverse lobbying”. It regularly encourages the creation of business structures and positions which support its own big business agenda. In the case of trade relations with India, this agenda has met with fierce resistance from farmers, fisherfolk, small businesses and traders who see the planned EU-India free trade agreement as a severe threat to their livelihoods. A number of Indian state chambers of commerce are supporting a civil society call for an immediate halt to the negotiations.
Just recently, 25 MEPs echoed their concerns in a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. The Commission is trying to counter this resistance by orchestrating consensus among big businesses on both sides of the talks to radically open up markets. And the EU-India business summit seems to be the perfect place to do that.
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