“Better cooperation between the EU and India on a wide range of issues will be necessary to deal with the serious global challenges that we face today.”

2005 is the halfway stage of the Lisbon Strategy where ambitious reforms and goals were set to make the European Union “the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world” by 2010. How much has been achieved?

The high-level group mandated by the European Council to carry out a mid­term review of the Lisbon Strategy, a group chaired by former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, has produced a very interesting report in this regard. This states that the results are still insufficient, which is due to an overloaded agenda, poor coordination and conflicting priorities. It, also, states that the political will of the member states could be improved.

Productivity levels in the European Union (EU) are still too low; the EU is not investing sufficiently on Research & Development: only 19 percent of EU’s population has a university or similar degree (32% in the US). As a result the growth rate leaves much to be desired.

The European Council and the new European Commission, which took office in November last year, had a careful look at the recommendations of the Kok report, and have decided to make the re-launch of the Lisbon Strategy one of the key priorities for the coming years. It was decided that efforts would focus on two main areas: productivity and employment. To remedy the lack of commitment of member states, the Commission has proposed a new kind of partnership with the member states. In future, each member state will adopt and implement a National Action Programme for growth and jobs. The new growth and job strategy is based on a clear division of responsibilities between the EU level and the member states. While the European Commission can act as a facilitator, the main responsibility for the economic reform process lies with the member states.

What steps can the Netherlands and India take to ensure multipolarity and multilateralism in the world economic and political order?

The Netherlands is a country with a long tradition of faith in international law and a multilateral approach to regional and global issues. Our country is, for example, one of the founding members of the European Union. Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali once famously described The Hague, host to many regional and international organisations in the field of justice and peace, as the “judicial capital of the world”. Therefore it is not surprising that the Netherlands attaches great importance to the reform of multilateral institutions, particularly the United Nations.

The Netherlands - and the EU for that matter - and India, both global players in the world economic order, have cooperated closely in multilateral discussions and have historically played a significant role in creating new international structures, including the WTO. I believe both the EU and India are firmly dedicated to the development and advancement of the multilateral trading system, and they will continue to cooperate to this effect. Therefore, I am very pleased that, at the EU-India summit that was held in The Hague on November 8th of last year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, in his capacity as President of the European Union, formally decided to forge a EU-India strategic partnership. Although, of course, the EU strives for good relations with all countries, the strategic partnership recognises that some countries have an exceptionally important role on the international stage—India is such a country. We firmly believe that better cooperation between the EU and India on a wide range of issues will be necessary to deal with the serious global challenges that we face today.

How is the India-EU Declaration on Cultural Cooperation and exchanges in a wide variety of areas including organizing cultural events, exchange of artists, and cooperation in restoration of ancient monuments and preservation techniques progressing?

EU Member States have been substantially promoting EU’s cultural presence in India. Spread in different cities all over India, there are 21 centres of Alliance Francaise, 11 British Council libraries, and 6 centres of the Max Mueller Bhawan, besides the cultural centres of Hungary, Italy, and Portugal in New Delhi. All of these cultural institutions are active in not only teaching the respective European languages and running libraries but also in bringing European culture through dance, drama, theatre, arts and musical performances to the Indian audience.

The European Commission has funded 30 million euro in the EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme which has resulted in 60 different projects going on or completed between networks of Indian and European organizations and institutions from the fields of media, academia and business entrepreneurial networks. Around a dozen of these projects have a strong component of cultural cooperation.

(Details are available at: http://www.delind.cec.eu.int/en/eco/eccp/eccp.htm)

The EU-India Joint Declaration on Culture was issued along with the Joint Statement at the 5th EU-India Summit held in the Hague on 8 November 2004. The European and Indian authorities are currently preparing an Action Plan to implement the recommendations of the Joint Statement. Actions to implement the Cultural Declaration will follow in due course. These actions will supplement the many efforts the Commission and the EU Member States have already been making to promote EU-India Cultural Cooperation. For example, the first-ever EU Cultural Week in India was held around the 3rd EU-India Summit held in New Delhi in Nov 2003. This was a series of European cultural performances staged by different EU embassies in collaboration with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the European Commission Delegation.

Similarly, EU Member States and the Commission Delegation have been staging the European Union Film Festival once every two years for the last 17 years. The Commission Delegation has been organizing a series of Information Seminars for the Indian Media in different cities of India. Currently the Commission is organizing an Essay Contest for Young Indian Journalists.

The Netherlands is, of course, developing its own cultural events in India. In the past months some concerts have been organised, and also design is a field that the Netherlands is especially paying attention to. Apart from this, the protection and conservation of our mutual cultural heritage is important. The Embassy is involved in the conservation of ancient Dutch monuments in different parts of India.