Members of the European Parliament (EP) will be delighted to see the US President-elect Joe Biden at the EP plenary in Strasbourg, Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s Party noted.

Earlier, Biden was invited to Brussels by the heads of the European Council and the European Commission, as well as the NATO Secretary-General.

The US elections took place on November 3 last year. On December 14, the electoral college approved the results of the vote, according to which Biden will become the new head of state. The incumbent President Donald Trump did not admit defeat and went to courts demanding a recount of votes in a number of states.

However, the actions of the White House head’s lawyers were not successful, their claims were rejected by the courts, including the US Supreme Court. The Senate and House of Representatives of Congress on January 6 at a joint meeting approved Biden’s victory. His inauguration will take place on January 20 in Washington on the steps of the Capitol.

Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Vahram Dumanyan today had a meeting with Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Armenia, Ambassador Andrea Wiktorin.

Greeting the Ambassador, Dumanyan attached importance to the programs being carried out in the education, science, culture and youth sectors with the support and through the partnership of the EU.

Touching upon the recent war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the minister stated that, as a result of the war, a large sector of the cultural heritage of Artsakh is out of Armenian control and is directly in danger.

“At this moment, what is primary is the preservation of those universal values, and we anticipate the support of the European Union to prevent any danger posing a threat to those values,” Dumanyan stressed, emphasizing that, in the context of the recent events, reforms in the education sector are overriding for the Armenian government as a guarantee for national security and adding that the government also anticipates the EU’s support in this regard.

In her turn, Wiktorin stated that the EU shares the challenges facing Armenia. “The year 2020 was truly a difficult year. COVID-19 taught us all to further enhance our digital capacities and infrastructures. For that purpose, the EU has provided assistance to the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport in order to organize remote learning. The EU also shares the concern about cultural heritage in Artsakh and highly appreciates the fact-finding activities of the UNESCO in this regard,” she said.

Wiktorin also touched upon the EU for Innovation in Armenia, Erasmus+ and Horizon-2020 programs as good examples of cooperation and informed that the EU has launched the process of earmarking the programs to be carried out in the course of the next seven years.

NEW DELHI: India wants to start negotiations on an investment deal with the European Union simultaneously with a trade agreement in a renewed push to boost bilateral ties with the trade bloc.
Keen to accelerate investments, technology and capital flows from the EU, India wants the investment and trade deals to happen parallelly and independently. “Both the investment deal and trade deal will have to happen parallelly and independently,” said an official.

The EU has said it is ready to consider launching negotiations on a standalone investment protection agreement, which would increase legal certainty for investors on both sides.

Negotiations for a broad-based Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) started in 2007 and were suspended in 2013.

The BTIA talks collapsed over certain EU demands such as greater market access for automobiles, wines and spirits, and further opening up of India’s financial services sector such as banking, insurance and e-commerce.

On the other hand, India is keen to get preferential access for its textile exports to the EU as it faces competition from Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

The EU also wants labour, environment and government procurement to be included in the talks with its trading partners, and a comprehensive trade and sustainable development chapter in order to deal with the social and environmental impact of trade.

However, experts said the EU’s requirements on labour and environment could be the sticking points in its talks with India.

“Sustainability standards and labour requirements should be our red lines. Moreover, the EU is unlikely to give us the status of a data secure nation,” said an expert.

However, the expert said that to be able to export textiles duty-free or at zero duty to the EU, India could consider concessions to their automobile exports through longterm staging of duty cuts.

According to another expert, the EU is introducing tariffs for products that don’t meet environmental standards as part of the European Green Deal and India would have to be prepared for that.

“It is no longer a simple give and take with the EU anymore. They will look at higher tariffs on exports from countries which do not follow sustainable practices,” the expert said.

India’s exports to the EU in April-October were $20.5 billion, led by organic chemicals, pharmaceutical products, mineral fuels, gems and jewellery, leather products and apparel, while imports were $17.9 billion. Nuclear reactors, electrical machinery and optical/photographic apparatus were the major imports.