By NNN-SPA,
Manama : A GCC-EU free trade agreement (FTA) should see the light of day soon, the European Parliament’s top official said Thursday.
Addressing a Press conference at the Gulf Hotel at the end of his day-long visit to Bahrain as part of a tour of GCC capitals, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering said the way forward is through dialogue.
“We have spoken in the past and negotiations are at an advanced stage,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf Daily News.
Pottering, who earlier met Bahrain’s King Hamad, Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Shoura (Consultative) Council members and other senior officials, said Bahrain is an important part of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) and its stand on the matter had to be taken into consideration.
“There is a lot of keenness in this country that this agreement should go ahead and that is a positive development.”
He said he firmly believed the GCC should be given a stake in a new union of Mediterranean and European countries because of the growing economic and political influence of its members.
“The proposal is that these nations should be granted non-voting memberships because it would be useful to have observers in the parliament representing the GCC.”
He said in the present context, the GCC nations could make a contribution to the development of the Mediterranean politically and economically.
Pottering’s visit to Bahrain, as also the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia, comes as part of the European Parliament’s observance of 2008 as the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
On the Palestinian issue, he said the European Parliament has always been of the view that there should be a ‘two state’ solution between the Palestinians and the Israelis.