Fawzia Abdulla Yusuf Zainal, Speaker of the Bahraini Council of Representatives, called on Thursday 12 May for closer relations between her parliament and the European Parliament.
“We should cooperate with each other, put in place all the necessary bodies to make our partnership and cooperation a reality. We want to move forward”, she told Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. In her view, the European and Bahraini parliaments should establish a roadmap and have joint programmes and exchanges of experience and views.
Recalling that the EU and Bahrain had a cooperation agreement, “which has helped us to cooperate very effectively and efficiently in the fields of fisheries, science, industrial, trade, etc.”, Mrs Zainal hoped that the agreement would go further and establish an effective framework for cooperation in all areas.
“Our doors are always open to make cooperation very effective and efficient”, she added. The President of the Council of Representatives invited her Parliament counterpart, Roberta Metsola, to visit Bahrain “very soon”, believing that the exchange of visits could only bring the two sides closer together.
Furthermore, the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union are expected to present a communication on a partnership with the Gulf on Wednesday 18 May. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)