India is poised to become the next country to join the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, just months after sealing a landmark trade agreement with the bloc, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Speaking after a meeting of senior trade and technology officials from India and the EU, the bloc’s research and innovation commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva said accession talks would be launched on Friday, with the aim of concluding them in October so that India can begin accessing Horizon from January 2027.
More than 20 countries outside the bloc already have access to Horizon Europe, which, with a budget of €93.5bn across the current 2021-2027 funding period, ranks among the EU’s most lucrative schemes. Only a handful of those participants sit outside Europe, namely Canada, Egypt, New Zealand, South Korea and Tunisia, while accession talks with Australia are also under way.
EU and Indian leaders finalised a free trade agreement in January as part of a broader push by both Brussels and Delhi to diversify their trade relationships.
The trade pact, which EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described in a Trumpian flourish as “the mother of all trade deals,” looks likely to take effect in early 2027. India’s commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal told reporters earlier this week that lawyers on both sides are expected to complete the legal scrubbing of the agreement before the end of July.
