Costa Confirms Modi Will Travel to Brussels in December to Sign India-EU Trade Deal

European Council President Antonio Costa has confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Brussels in December to formally sign the India-European Union free trade agreement. Costa made the confirmation on Thursday, October 29, speaking at an event organised by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations in Canada, PTI reporting carried by Indian outlets said.

"Prime Minister Modi will come in December to sign the deal," Costa said, in remarks reported by BizzBuzz from the PTI wire. The signing ceremony is expected shortly before a meeting of European leaders scheduled to begin in Brussels on December 17, 2026. Reports of a mid December visit had circulated before Costa spoke, and his remarks are the public confirmation of the trip from the president of the European Council himself.

A deal concluded in January

India and the EU concluded negotiations on the agreement in January 2026, and Prime Minister Modi and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen jointly announced the conclusion during the European leaders visit to India. The agreement is expected to create a combined market covering more than two billion people and representing approximately a quarter of the global economy. That scale is the reason the signing is set around a gathering of European leaders rather than handled as a routine ceremony: the pact links India with the 27 member state bloc in a single trade framework, on the figures shared with the reporting.

Rapporteur reported that Modi is scheduled to visit Brussels on December 16, a day before an EU leaders summit on December 17 and 18. The same report added a condition that still sits in front of the ceremony: EU countries have yet to give the Commission the green light to sign, a decision requiring a qualified majority, and no date had been set for that authorisation. Costa confirmation therefore settles the visit and the intent to sign, while one formal EU step remains open on the reported record.

Signing is not the same as entry into force

The signing will not immediately bring the agreement into force. It requires approval from the European Parliament and completion of India domestic approval procedures, and both sides aim to implement the pact in the first half of 2027. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said earlier that the agreement could become operational within four to five months after its formal signing. Goyal also said India has secured market access for more than 99 percent of its exports to the EU by trade value, according to details shared by the government.

Read together, the reported steps form a clear order. The Council authorisation comes first on the EU side, then the December signing Costa confirmed, then parliamentary approval in Europe and domestic approval in India, with implementation aimed at the first half of 2027. The December date is a signing date, and the reporting is careful on that point: nothing in the confirmed facts brings the agreement into force this year.

What changed on Thursday is the standing of the trip itself. A visit reported as scheduled is now confirmed in public by the European Council president, and the remaining questions are procedural: the member state authorisation, the ceremony timing against the December 17 leaders meeting, and the approvals after the signature.