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The EU announced details of a new “strategic agenda” with India today, the latest sign that the bloc is looking beyond the US as it tries to build global ties.

The agreement includes proposals on security and technology while also reiterating the EU’s aim to conclude a free-trade agreement with India this year. The two sides are “exploring the creation of an EU-India Security and Defence Partnership,” the commission also announced.

There are flies in the ointment, however. Both EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas struck a downbeat note at a press conference announcing the agreement today in Brussels.

Maros Sefcovic Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Sefcovic said he had expected more progress when he met with his Indian counterparts last week in New Delhi. Kallas said that India’s purchase of Russian oil remains an issue. 

“The problems we have in our relationship are very clear, we are trying to address them in our negotiations,” Kallas said, adding that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” when it comes to a trade deal. Sefcovic pointed out that the proposed trade deal will have to get a nod from the European Parliament and Council. 

The timing of the announcement is interesting. US President Donald Trump has been pressuring Europe to impose tariffs on India and China over their imports of Russian oil. To date, that idea hasn’t gained traction among Europeans.

As Bloomberg has previously reported, the EU is considering some sanctions on companies in India and China that are enabling Russia’s oil trade as part of its 19th sanctions package.

As discussions intensify on that package, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen spoke to Trump last night, and pledged that the EU would accelerate its phase-out of Russian fossil fuel.

The issue impacts Hungary and Slovakia in particular. But as Bloomberg’s Daniel Hornak reports, Slovakia’s economy minister signaled this morning that it would resist pressure from Trump to cut Russian oil and gas imports until the country has sufficient alternative supplies.

The Latest

• The European Commission today proposed suspending Israel’s preferential trade benefits in response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
• New momentum is building in Europe to expand the use of frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine following a shift in position by Germany. The change reflects concern in Berlin that if US support under Trump wanes, the burden of backing Ukraine would fall heavily on Europe’s largest economy.
• Europe’s top business lobby in China with over 1,600 member companies, the EU Chamber of Commerce, urged Beijing to address price wars and unsustainable competition as the country readies its next five-year plan — adding to pressure from the US over the matter.
• The Netherlands will boost its defense budget next year to €27 billion, as the country works toward meeting NATO’s new goal of spending 5% of gross domestic product on security by 2035.
• Sweden’s government proposed cutting benefit payments to those out of work to tackle one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates as the Nordic state approaches an election year. 
• A proposal to abolish a century-old property tax in Switzerland is losing support among voters ahead of a ballot in less than two weeks on overhauling housing levies.

Seen and Heard on Bloomberg

The imposition of tariffs under the Trump administration means more assets will move away from the US,  Euronext CEO Stephane Boujnah told Bloomberg TV in an interview today. The head of Euronext, which operates exchanges across Europe, said that assets from the rest of the world are “deciding to allocate a bigger chunk of their strategic allocations in Europe versus the US,’’ adding that  “many, many companies are ready to go public now.’’

The Number

Coming up

• Press conference between European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy this afternoon
• French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu meets with the National Rally in the afternoon
• EU environment ministers meet in Brussels tomorrow
• Commission president Ursula von der Leyen speaks at meeting of German economic and business associations in Berlin tomorrow

Final Thought

Protesters in Belgrade on Sept. 8. Photographer: ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP

Demonstrations against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his government are continuing, sparked by a tragedy at a railway station last November that claimed more than a dozen lives. Protesters have demanded early elections, accusing Vucic of allowing corruption and cronyism to flourish. But what they want to come next is far from clear in a country that’s been showered with EU money, its leadership courted by Brussels and yet where polls show only now a third of Serbs want to join the bloc.

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