Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Sh. Piyush Goyal held a bilateral meeting with the European Commissioner for Internal Trade, Mr. Thierry Breton on the sidelines of the 1st Ministerial meeting of India EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC). During the meeting, both sides underscored the importance of shared democratic values and complementary nature of both India and EU going forward. Both sides agreed that appropriate political commitment can be made to strengthen our bilateral relations taking to new heights.

Sh. Piyush Goyal informed that India has undertaken an ambitious growth trajectory for the next 25 years and has achieved many of the sustainable development goals. The target of having about 40% source of energy from renewables has already been achieved much before the committed timeline of 2030. India has set a further target of creating 500GW of renewable resources to be achieved by 2030. He noted that both our economies have different basis and this provides an opportunity for greater engagement given the current geopolitical scenario. On the suggestion of Mr. Breton for exploring engagement in the space sector, Sh. Goyal informed that India is amongst the major powers in the space sector and that both sides can have deeper engagements in the sector.

Further, the Minister informed that India has become a global leader in respect of fintech with UPI and Rupay. India has also come out with an open network for digital commerce (ONDC) which has capability to integrate all the buyers and sellers across networks. Mr Breton informed that EU is working on new Digital Services Act to which Sh. Goyal said that both sides can collaborate further given India's status as an IT giant. He further informed that India has the world’s third largest startup ecosystem and has included B20 track in G20 meetings. This provides for greater engagements in digital space and other areas.

On the issue of carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), Sh. Goyal informed that further study needs to be undertaken as to how this could impact enterprises on both sides, impact on trade and the effect on consumers due to increased price of goods and services.

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Digital regulation cooperation can enable deeper India-EU engagement across fintech, digital commerce platforms and data governance. Bilateral discussions targeted enhanced India-EU cooperation in energy, digital economy, space and trade policy. India noted accelerated achievement of renewable energy goals and plans for capacity expansion. In the digital realm India highlighted fintech innovations and an open digital commerce network, proposing collaboration with EU digital regulation frameworks. Ministers agreed that the carbon border adjustment mechanism requires further study to determine effects on enterprises, trade and consumer prices, signalling the need for joint impact assessment.