European Union has proposed to increase the scope of engagement with Bangladesh. The 29 European countries have expressed interest to change donor-recipient relation and develop a partnership based link.

The relation with the EU is around one and a half decade and an agreement with the EU was signed in 2001. Since Bangladesh made rapid progress in the last 18 years and has been elevated to developing state from a Least Developed State, LDC, the EU has sent a proposal for expansion of relation.

The proposal has been sent to the Economic Relations Department.

Under the existing, 2001 agreement, good governance, human rights, trade, investment and development assistance were discussed.

The new proposal asks for all meetings to be held annually with joint commission leadership given to the foreign secretary instead of the ERD secretary.

Joint secretary of ERD, Mohammad Ali Hossain, told Bangla Tribune: “the foreign ministry has informed us of the new EU proposal and we will let them know of our opinion by next week.”

The work of each ministry is stated in rules of business and we will not go beyond that, he added.

Saying that economic issues should remain within the ERD, he added: “other departments can discuss immigration, Rohingya and elevation from LDC but issues related to economic matters must remain with the ERD.”

Brussels informed Bangladesh last April that they are interested to work with the foreign ministry and wants a change from the current format. Later, on 6 May, ERD was asked to give its written opinion.

Regarding a new dimension to the relation, an official of the foreign ministry, said: “The donor-recipient relation does not exist anymore; since they also want to discuss Rohingya, GSP facility and security, the EU wants to discuss with the foreign ministry.”

Under the present structure, there is no scope to discuss Rohingya issue or security, added the foreign ministry official.

At present, Bangladeshi products get tax free facility in EU markets and to maintain this after 2024, negotiation has to be carried out under GSP plus and these issues also include human rights, media freedom and other matters.

Therefore, to extend the scope, we are discussing the new proposal, said the foreign ministry official.