India and the European Union on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate the mobility of skilled workers, young professionals and students, which would also open up seasonal work for them in sectors facing manpower shortage.
To streamline this, a first-of-its-kind European Legal Gateway Office will be set up in India to help Indian workers, students and researchers find out about opportunities in Europe, starting with the ICT sector, to expand it further in the future.
The EU-India Comprehensive Framework of Cooperation on Mobility was adopted as an MoU in parallel with the finalisation of the free trade agreement. The ease of mobility facilitated by the MoU is aimed at boosting India’s services exports.
What it seeks to do is provide a “predictable framework for business mobility covering short-term, temporary and business travel in both directions”. This will enable professionals to travel between the two economies to provide services under different scenarios.
“EU and India are providing mobility commitments to each other for Intra-Corporate Transferees (ICT) and Business Visitors, along with entry and working rights for dependents and family members of ICTs. The EU has also offered commitments in 37 sectors/sub-sectors for Contractual Service Suppliers (CSS) and 17 sectors/sub-sectors for Independent Professionals (IP), many of which are sectors of interest to India, including professional services, computer and related services, research and development services, and education services,” the commerce ministry said in a press release.
Dwelling on the MoU, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “Our greatest wealth is our people. That is why I am glad that we are signing an agreement on mobility. We will facilitate the movement of students, researchers, seasonal and highly skilled workers. This is also why we are launching the first EU Legal Gateway Office in India. It will be a one-stop hub to support Indian talent moving to Europe, in full alignment with EU member states’ needs
and policies. This is good for our economies. This is good for the friendship between our people. This openness benefits us all.”
Conceding that mobility is ultimately a decision over which a member state has competence and not the European Union as a bloc, foreign secretary Vikram Misri told mediapersons at the briefing on the EU leadership’s visit that the MoU will provide guidance and facilitate authorisation of long-stay visas and resident permits for Indian nationals for studies for at least one year. “If there are longer periods of study, they go back to individual member states,” he said, adding the same would apply for research or other types of hosting agreements.
India, according to the commerce ministry, has also secured a framework to constructively engage on social security agreements over a five-year horizon, together with the framework supporting student mobility and post-study work opportunities.