The India-European Union free-trade agreement (FTA) could be signed by the end of this year and enter into force within months, with implementation possible in early 2027, said Hervé Delphin, the bloc’s ambassador to India, on Monday.
Both sides are moving through the final legal scrutiny of the text.
“There is a common commitment from the top to have the FTA signed as soon as possible, and we are looking at the end of the year. I think both sides have worked hard to complete the process of the so-called legal vetting of the text, and in such a way that by the end of the year, there is a possibility the FTA will be signed,” said Delphin, addressing a press briefing at the Erasmus+ Pre-Departure Event 2026.
Delphin’s remarks come a day after Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said India and the European Union (EU) were working on signing the FTA by December this year and making it operational by March 2027.
Asked about Goyal’s expectation that the agreement could come into force by March next year, Delphin said he could not comment on a specific date but added that it was reasonable to be optimistic about the timeframe.
“When it is signed on the EU side, we have an extra step, which is that the European Parliament has to give its consent, and when this consent is registered, the FTA will enter into force,” he added.
India and the EU launched negotiations for the agreement in 2022, restarting talks after an earlier effort stalled in 2013. The negotiations concluded in 2026 after multiple rounds of discussions covering trade in goods and services, investment, and other areas, paving the way for the legal review of the text before signing.
Delphin said sectors such as artificial intelligence, energy, the green transition, urban development, health care and other emerging sectors would increasingly be part of EU-India economic cooperation. He said the two sides could combine India’s scale with European expertise, particularly in areas linked to the green transition and technology.
On energy cooperation, Delphin said India had made progress in renewable energy but faced challenges in building the supporting ecosystem, including electricity grids and storage capacity. He said the EU could contribute its experience in areas such as smart grids as both sides work on expanding clean energy systems.
Bloc’s migration tactic to become ‘more selective’
As Europe debates migration pressures and labour shortages, Hervé Delphin said the bloc’s future migration approach would become increasingly “selective”, with movement of people shaped by specific skill requirements rather than broader migration flows. He said demographic changes would create labour shortages in several sectors, making skilled migration and talent mobility an important part of the EU-India relationship. “The approach to migration will be increasingly selective, and we will identify in which areas there are needs for workers,” Delphin said, adding that several EU member states were already working with India.