Bangladesh has strong ties with the European Union
Bangladesh-European Union (EU) relations dates back to 1973, when Bangladesh established formal diplomatic relations with the newly enlarged community. Negotiations were initiated with the Community in 1974 which culminated in the signing of a Commercial Cooperation Agreement and setting up of a Joint Commission on trade and economic cooperation in 1976. The Community opened an office of the European Commission in Dhaka in 1982, initially under the Commission's Delegation for South Asia in New Delhi. Subsequently, the office was upgraded in 1988 to a full delegation. For accessing the Website of the EU delegation in Dhaka please click here.
A further agreement on textiles in 1986 (which was superseded by an administrative arrangement following the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995) provided Bangladesh textiles and clothing exports quota free access to the European Communities. The co-operation evolved over the years and reached a new level of partnership under the third generation Co-operation Agreement in 2001, where the spectrum of co-operation was broadened to include a wide array of spheres, including support for sustainable economic and social development, aid for trade, governance, environment, science and technology, information, culture and communication, etc.
Today, European Union is the single largest business partner of Bangladesh. It the most important destination of exports from Bangladesh. In 2006, Bangladesh's export to the EU member-states was in the tune of Euro 4.37 billion which comprised more 56 percent of its total exports to the world.
Also, EU member-states as a whole is the largest development partner of Bangladesh. EU's has finalized its financial perspective for 2007-2013, with respect to Bangladesh. The concerned document styled National Indicative Programme 2007-2013 (NIP) outlines future pattern of EU resource flow into Bangladesh which is in the range of Euro 398 million for the concerned period.
Notably, EU member-states together are a major source of foreign investment in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels is trying hard to enhance EU-Bangladesh relationship on all fronts. Recently an initiative has been taken to form a group of MEPs in the EU Parliament to be known as Friends of Bangladesh.
