Brussels, 08/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, visited the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday 7 January. Pöttering was accompanied by the president of the foreign affairs committee, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and the president of the “security and defence” subcommittee, Karl von Wogau, and had a meeting with the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Even though there are no formal relations between the EU and NATO, Mr Pöttering hopes that this visit, the first carried out by a president of the European Parliament, will help develop exchanges of information between the two institutions on a regular basis. (O.J./transl.rh)