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New Delhi (dpa) - The European Union is Indias largest trading partner, accounting for 20 per cent of Indias trade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modis maiden trip to France and Germany is aimed at increasing investment in India as well as creating business for European industries.

Indias main trading partners in the EU are France, Germany and Britain.

Here are some statistics that illustrate the extent of trade relations between India and the European Union:

- The value of EU-India trade grew from 28.6 billion euros (about 30 billion dollars) in 2003 to 72.7 billion euros in 2013, according to data from the European Commission;

- EU investment stock in India has grown substantially, reaching 41.8 billion euros in 2012;

- Trade in commercial services quadrupled in the past decade, increasing from 5.2 billion euros in 2002 to 22.7 billion euros in 2012;

- Germany is Indias largest trading partner in Europe and total bilateral trade between the two countries was valued at 16.08 billion euro in 2013, a decline of 2.08 per cent compared to the previous year;

- Total German foreign direct investment in India was valued at 7.57 billion dollars in the period from 1991 through September 2014, according to Indias Ministry for External Affairs;

- There are more than 1,600 Indo-German business collaborations and 600 Indo-German joint ventures in operation;

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BACKGROUND India's trade relations with the European Union, France and Germany

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has called on the European Union to reform its institutions and use the EIB to boost investment in Greece. He believes the EU should address the structural inequalities that plague its weakest members. EurActiv France reports.

The annual forum of the Institute for New Economic Thinking on 9 April provided a hospitable stage for Yanis Varoufakis to explicate his vision of economic theory, and the European economy. The government minister, and professor of economics, found himself the centre of attention at the Paris forum, and took the time to explain his strategy in detail, as a crucial payment deadline loomed over his country's finances.

"Few finance ministers have such a talent for economics as Yanis Varoufakis," the Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz acknowledged, before asking him questions on the reasons behind Europe's economic deadlock.

Founding fathers to blame for lack of eurozone integration

"I believe we have to put an end to the divided eurozone and aim towards greater consolidation. We must change this process of pitting one nation against another, and renew the momentum of integration and unification," the new minister said. He added that he would not be there talking about the Greek crisis if the EU had been federalised.

Yanis Varoufakis blames the EUs incomplete federal integration on the fact that its founding fathers, including the pillars of European politics Franois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, did not believe in their power to create a United States of Europe. They established an economic and monetary union in the hope that cooperation between the states would get closer over time, and they thought the political union would come about naturally in a time of crisis.

"But the opposite has happened. The crisis that hit Europe means that it is now more difficult to convince the states to move forward. The crisis did not bring us together, but pulled us apart. If we tried to form a United States of Europe today, we would fail. But I think we need to modify the treaties and try to change this situation," the professor said.

How would the federation have responded?

The Greek finance minister argued that a federal Europe would have reacted differently to the crisis, which brought about debt, the collapse of the banking system, under-investment, and an explosion of poverty.

He said that member states' debts were preventing them from making the investments necessary for their future, but that strategic interventions from the European Investment Bank (EIB) could help.

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Varoufakis steals the show at economic forum

European Union state aid regulators today approved Permanent TSB's restructuring plan after the bank pledged to raise net interest margins and sell low-yielding assets over the next three years.

The bank will also raise capital and cut costs as part of the plan, which the European Commission said was aimed at returning 99.2%-State owned bank to profit.

The restructuring plan includes a set of commitments during the restructuring period until the end of 2018, centred on the bank becoming a smaller, domestically-focused lender.

As part of the agreement, the bank will raise profitability by increasing its net interest margins, as well as disposing of low-yield assets.

As previously announced, Permanent TSB has committed to selling some loan portfolios, including its Capital Home Loans Ltd Mortgage Book, which is mainly buy-to-let loans in the UK, and its non-performing Irish Commercial Real Estate Lending portfolio.

It has also committed to reducing the value of its defaulted Irish tracker mortgages through a combination of measures, including cures and asset sales.

The bank has also pledged to raise new capital from private investors, with shareholders being told at its annual general meeting yesterday that 525m would be sought.

"PTSB will continue to de-leverage and reduce costs and will not be able to carry out acquisitions in this period. Moreover, PTSB will take certain actions to facilitate the market entry of competitors," the EU executive said in a statement.

Permanent TSB was required to submit a restructuring plan to European authorities after it received 2.7 billion of capital from the State during the financial crisis.

The European Commission sought the plan to ensure that this support was in line with EU state aid rules.

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EU Commission approves PTSB's restructuring plan

BRUSSELS: The European Union re-imposed sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 Iranian shipping companies on Wednesday, using new legal grounds, after the measures were struck down by a European court.

The EU's second highest court annulled an EU asset freeze on Bank Tejarat and 40 Iranian shipping companies in January, finding fault with the legal grounds given by the EU.

The EU, as it has done in other cases, responded by re-listing Bank Tejarat and 32 of the Iranian shipping firms using new legal grounds. Eight firms were not put back on the list published in the EU's Official Journal on Wednesday.

The decision comes days after Iran and six major powers reached a framework agreement to end a dispute over Iran's nuclear activities which prompted the sanctions.

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European Union re-imposes sanctions on Iranian bank, 32 shipping firms

BRUSSELS: The European Union re-imposed sanctions on an Iranian bank and 32 Iranian shipping companies on Wednesday, using new legal grounds, after the measures were struck down by a European court.

Coming days after Iran and six major powers reached a framework agreement to end a long-running dispute over Iran's nuclear programme, the EU's move is a signal that the 28-nation bloc will keep up sanctions pressure on Iran until a final nuclear deal is sealed.

The EU's second-highest court annulled an EU asset freeze on Bank Tejarat and 40 Iranian shipping companies in January, finding fault with the legal grounds given by the EU.

The EU, as it has done in other cases, responded by re-listing Bank Tejarat and 32 of the Iranian shipping firms, including Hamburg-based Ocean Capital Administration GmbH, using new legal grounds.

Eight firms were not put back on the list published in the EU's Official Journal on Wednesday. The measures take immediate effect.

The framework agreement, reached last Thursday in Switzerland, clears the way for negotiations on a settlement aimed at allaying Western fears that Iran wants to build an atomic bomb and in return lift economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Sanctions on Iran will only be lifted after a final deal, which the six powers and Iran aim to reach by June 30.

In its reasons for restoring the asset freeze on Bank Tejarat, the EU said the bank "provides significant support to the Government of Iran by offering financial resources and financing services for oil and gas development projects."

The shipping firms were all listed because they are owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, which was previously put under sanctions.

The EU had already given notice to a lawyer representing the shipping firms in March that it intended to put them back on the sanctions list.

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EU re-imposes sanctions on Iranian bank, 32 shipping firms