India could help save an aging Europe

As the continent tilts to the right and its politicians find it hard to explain an influx of refugees from war-torn countries, India is actively trying to present itself as a reasonable partner.

Listen

Share

INDIA-EU-DIPLOMACY-DEFENCE

With U.S. President Donald Trump threatening tariffs against Europe almost as soon as he took office, Ursula von der Leyen first signed a long-controversial deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc, and then looked east toward India. | Money Sharma/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

April 4, 2025 4:01 am CET

By Anchal Vohra

Anchal Vohra is a Brussels-based international affairs commentator.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen beamed as she stood next to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders had just tasked their respective teams with ironing out decades-long differences to finalize a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) — first discussed in 2007 — by the end of this year.

It is “the largest deal of this kind anywhere in the world,” von der Leyen declared. “Surprise us.”

The impetus to push the deal forward appears to be the result of an EU scramble to find alternative markets, as their closest ally across the Atlantic declares a trade war. With U.S. President Donald Trump threatening tariffs against Europe almost as soon as he took office, von der Leyen first signed a long-controversial deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc, and then looked east toward India.

“We both stand to lose from a world of spheres of influence and isolationism. And we both stand to gain from a world of cooperation and working together,” she said during her February visit to New Delhi.

And with a population of more than 1.4 billion people, India offers a vast market for European goods and services, a manufacturing base it could invest in and nurture to counter China, and — crucially — a vast reserve of human capital to utilize.

Back in 2023, the EU had prepared an action plan to lure foreign workers and meet bloc-wide shortages in 42 occupations. And provided their qualifications are recognized and visa processes made easier, Indian citizens are now poised to plug these gaps.

The Indian community has already made a name for itself in the technology, health care and hospitality industries in most of the West. Indian doctors and nurses are highly sought after in the U.S. and the U.K.; they are an attractive hiring pool for English-speaking hotel and restaurant staff and seasonal tourism workers; and Indian techies have become some of the biggest names in the game.

Sitting in his office, India’s EU envoy Saurabh Kumar told me that if Europe is interested, India has skilled and talented manpower that could match the bloc’s needs through structured, legal and transparent frameworks.

“India would be very happy to provide skilled manpower to Europe,” he said. “But at the end of the day,” how and where they want to attract manpower from “is Europe’s decision.”

But as the continent tilts to the right and its politicians find it hard to explain an influx of refugees from war-torn countries in the Middle East — a stance often rooted in Islamophobia — the Indian government is actively trying to present itself as a reasonable partner.

It has even sweetened the deal by agreeing to repatriate those who illegally cross into Europe.

For example, India has signed several Migrant Mobility Agreements, most recently with Germany, Italy and France. And while these agreements are designed to enhance opportunities for Indian students and professionals, they also ensure those who arrive without proper documentation return home.

There’s also a growing push to empower India to produce semiconductors and other products that would help secure supply chains controlled by China, as well as a possible partnership in the production of green hydrogen. | Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images

Under the framework with Italy, Indian students can gather initial professional experience after completing academic or vocational training in the country, and they may be granted temporary residence for up to 12 months. The two countries also agreed on quotas for seasonal and nonseasonal workers for the next two years, so as to benefit Indian citizens suited for jobs in hospitality and agriculture, as well as Italian employers short on manpower.

Meanwhile, Article-5 of a recently inked India France Migration and Mobility agreement allows for the return of persons in “irregular situations” once their “nationality is conclusively established.”

“If there are Indians without proper documents,” Kumar explained, “I think our foreign minister has already mentioned that once the nationality has been established … we will take these people back.”

And that is music to the ears of European politicians who want to pursue controlled migration with embassy-issued visas, while meeting the demand for labor in an aging continent.

According to Sita Sharma, an independent consultant working as a senior advisor to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India, currently over 600 million people in the country are between the ages of 18 and 35. Comparatively, the median age in Germany is 45, with about 14 million in that age group.

The agreement between Berlin and New Delhi allows “qualified young Indians to gain professional experience, study, start vocational training, or work in Germany,” Sharma noted, mentioning the agreement also theoretically proposes “bilateral placement agreements between the German Federal Employment Agency and Indian state or national level parties, particularly in healthcare, hospitality, mechanics, and electrical work.” However, she highlighted Germany’s low ambition, with only an “exchange of 3,000 workers annually” so far.

But now, as work to finalize the FTA intensifies, both Brussels and New Delhi are in a mood to make concessions.

It appears India may finally have the stomach to reduce tariffs — as high as 100 percent or more on cars, wine and whiskey — while some in Europe have been sympathetic regarding India’s constraints around opening its agriculture sector to European imports.

There’s also a growing push to empower India to produce semiconductors and other products that would help secure supply chains controlled by China, as well as a possible partnership in the production of green hydrogen.

“India has a very, very forceful decarbonization agenda. If we want to be serious about shutting down coal-fired power plants in the world, no better place to start than India,” Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at Bruegel and a non-resident senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told POLITICO.

And while India has previously objected to the EU’s tax on carbon-intensive products such as steel, and accused Brussels of protectionism in the name of clean industrial growth, it now harbors hope of working around that by highlighting its commitment to renewable energy and to meet its net zero target by 2070.

Kirkegaard believes the key hurdle from a European perspective will be market access: “India is essentially in a very old-style protectionist economy. It’s really about dismantling a lot of that,” he said.

“But, at the same time, if you want to significantly increase legal migration, employment-based migration to the EU — which I think many countries would like — you have to do it with India,” he said.

“That’s where the people are.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5705654&forum_id=2:#48817410)

According to Sita Sharma, an independent consultant working as a senior advisor to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of the Government of India, currently over 600 million people in the country are between the ages of 18 and 35. Comparatively, the median age in Germany is 45, with about 14 million in that age group.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5705654&forum_id=2:#48817413)