India-EU FTA to be signed on December 16

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) will be signed on December 16, 2026, two diplomatic sources have separately confirmed to The Hindu .

This will be part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming back-to-back trips in December to Canada, the U.S., and Belgium, where three separate FTAs are currently either being negotiated or in the process of approval.

Further, as the EU FTA has received “majority approval” in Europe, it will not require separate ratification by each EU country once the European Council gives its go-ahead.

The next step, after the December signing, will be passage in the European Parliament, which will take another one to two months, paving the way for a roll-out in “early 2027”.