By Mohmmad Shoeb
DOHA: Qatar and European Union (EU) have opened up dialogues to ink a comprehensive agreement for a deeper aviation cooperation and expand economic ties, said the visiting EU Transport Commissioner.
“The relationship between Qatar and EU is developing well, especially in the field of transport,” said Violeta Bulc, during her first official visit to Qatar. “I am here to discuss how to move forward to expand and deepen the bilateral cooperation to make it a win-win situation,” she said.
Bulc, in an exclusive interview to The Peninsula, said: “We are doing well in railways, and there are rooms for further development in other fields such as maritime and smart cities. And I believe there is a great potential in our future development in areas of business, investment and technology sharing.”
The Transport Commissioner, and her accompanying delegation, also met Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday.
She also met Minister of Transport H E Jassim bin Seif Ahmed Al Sulaiti, where Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive of Qatar Airways was also present.
In the meeting, they reviewed relations between Qatar and the European Union as well as issues of mutual interest.
The Minister of Transport and the EU Commissioner exchanged discussions on several issues, with special focus on aviation, maritime, technology and innovation to further deepen and strengthen cooperation in these areas.
“It’s really impressive what Qatar has achieved in the field of civil aviation over the last few years, but there are a lot of rooms to upgrade the content on which the aviation sector operates,” she said. “I am here to open up dialogue to develop mutual trust for a comprehensive agreement,” added Bulc, the Slovenian entrepreneur and politician who is the Transport Commissioner at EU since November 1, 2014.
Notably, EU is now ready to publish a comprehensive aviation strategy, which has been written for the first time for the 28-member EU.
The upcoming aviation strategy is expected to open up additional fields for the development of Qatar-EU relationship.
The new aviation strategy, which is to be submitted to the EU Commission for final approval soon, according to Bulc, deals with market opening, innovation, safety and reshaping security regulations based on risk evaluation.
“For the first time we are also bringing a single regulatory framework for the usage of remotely controlled aircraft such as drones as their use is growing rapidly in the field of logistics, medical, agriculture and entertainment. The document will be applicable across the entire EU member states,” she said.
EU, which is striving to stimulate its growth momentum, is aggressively trying to attract foreign investments from around the world, including energy-rich GCC states. The GCC states account for 4.2 percent of total EU trade, the fifth largest worldwide.
While EU is the first trading partner for the Gulf countries covering 11 percent of their total trade in goods.
According to European Commission statistics on EU-GCC trade, the total value of bilateral trade in goods amounted to about €150bn (QR586.36bn) in 2014, witnessing a significant increase of 50 percent from €100bn (QR390.90bn) in 2010.
The Peninsula
