The Council of EU Chambers has organized a visit of EU Parliamentarians on 22nd February 2017 

The European Parliament Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) visited Mumbai and New Delhi from 21-23 February. The Delegation included six Members: Vicky Ford (Chair, ECR/UK), Andreas Schwab (EPP/DE), Ivan Stefanec (EPP/SK), Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D/DE), Olga Sehnalova (S&D/CZ) and Ms. Marlene Mizzi (S&D/MT). In Mumbai, IMCO visited the port, where Customs authorities illustrated the current efforts to digitalise all customs transactions and to improve the infrastructure.

The Council of EU Chambers organized the meeting of EU Parliamentarians with  EU Member States  Consul Generals and Commercial Counsellors and representatives of EU companies. They presented to the MEPs their views on the current business environment. IMCO met the Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra, Mr Vidyasagar  Rao , with whom they had a general discussion on the opportunities and challenges of India. They also visited a consumer’ association (CGSI – Consumer Guidance Society of India) and The Millennium Business Park, a technology park.

In Delhi, IMCO met three ministers. The Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, illustrated the initiatives on skills. The Minister for Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan, illustrated the main measures for consumer protection in India and the work of the Bureau of Indian Standards. Finally, the Minister for Law and Justice & Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, discussed at length the government’s many programmes designed to modernise India (Digital India, Skill India, digitalisation of economic transactions etc). IMCO met also two Standing Parliamentary Committees, on Information Technology (Chair: Anurang Singh Thakur, BJP) with whom they discussed the respective initiatives in the digital sector (Digital India vs EU’s Digital single market), and on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (Chair: Divakar Reddy, of Telugu Desam Party). IMCO finally met Dinesh Sharma (Seconded European Standardisation Expert in India – SESEI), who summarised the standardisation project’s activities.