NEW DELHI:An agreement finalised on Tuesday by India and the European Union (EU), coupled with the 27-member bloc’s first Legal Gateway Office in the country, will facilitate the movement of students, researchers and seasonal and professional workers to Europe and enhance people-to-people exchanges between the two sides.
The memorandum of understanding on the comprehensive framework for cooperation on mobility was signed by external affairs minister S Jaishankar and EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič on the margins of the India-EU Summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the agreement, alongside an ambitious trade deal, will open up new opportunities in the EU for Indian students, workers and professionals.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s Legal Gateway Office in India will serve as a “one-stop hub to support Indian talent moving to Europe in full alignment with EU member states’ needs and policies”. She added, “This is good for our economies, this is good for the friendship between our people.”
India currently has migration and mobility agreements with about half a dozen EU member states, including France, Germany and Italy, and the new pact with the EU will facilitate information exchange with smaller member states and open new pathways for Indian students and workers.
While mobility is handled by individual EU member states, foreign secretary Vikram Misri told a media briefing that the new MoU will “provide guidance and facilitate authorisation” of visas and residence permits for Indian nationals for studies lasting up to a year or shorter durations.
“If there are longer frameworks, then of course, they go back to individual member state competencies. The same goes for research or for other types of posting agreements,” he said.
Mobility and skilling is also one of the five pillars of a new five-year comprehensive strategic agenda finalised at the India-EU Summit, with the two sides agreeing to support mutually beneficial skills and talent mobility while “managing migration issues effectively, including countering irregular migration, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings, and cooperating on effective and timely return and readmission of irregular migrants”.
The first pilot EU Legal Gateway Office will provide information and support the movement of workers to the bloc, starting with the ICT sector. The comprehensive framework for cooperation on mobility will also support skill development and compare qualification frameworks. Both sides will use the EU Talent Pool IT platform to facilitate recruitment of workers in shortage occupations.
India and the EU will modernise and simplify Schengen visa procedures through the digitalisation of visa procedures, and jointly address the challenges of visa fraud and document verification. They will also strengthen mobility exchanges of students, academics and researchers through initiatives such as the Union of Skills, Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programmes, and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and Indian funding programmes such as the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC).
A high-level education and skills dialogue will bring together policy-makers, quality assurance authorities, education institutions, and training providers to promote the seamless flow of talent, and both sides will facilitate the recognition of qualifications and learning periods abroad to support collaboration in higher and vocational education. This will include satellite campuses and language training in India.
India and the EU will also strengthen cooperation in tourism to boost two-way sustainable tourism cooperation, and support skills development and technical qualifications across the EU and India in critical tech areas and support mobility schemes under Horizon Europe and Indian fellowship programmes.
Curated by Shiv Shakti Mishra
