EU envoy expects bilateral trade boom

A post-World Cup period is expected to witness a significant boost in trade relations, as well as in other areas of co-operation, between Qatar and European Union (EU) and EU member states, EU ambassador and head of EU Delegation to Qatar Dr Cristian Tudor has said. “I think that the EU member states and Qatar are very well engaged and I strongly believe that post World Cup there will be a substantial boom in trade relations,” he told Gulf Times, noting the tournament’s positive impact on Qatar.
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 was lauded and highly regarded as the best ever, showcasing “Qatar’s ability to stage mega events and set a new benchmark for future mega-event host nations”. EU ambassador Dr Tudor said that Qatar seems interested in continuing to expand its network of embassies in Europe, which reflects “how important Europe has become for Qatar.”
“And this is reflected also in our EU policies towards the GCC, as we opened a diplomatic mission in Qatar, and lately a few additional EU member states have opened diplomatic missions in Doha. For instance, I am very happy to see the impact of Finland who opened the embassy not long ago and as a result I see more business delegations and more co-operation between the Qatari and Finnish private sectors... This is something fantastic,” he said.
Citing a pro-active private sector, EU ambassador Dr Tudor said people are aware of Qatar’s success, particularly those who came for the World Cup and are coming back to visit and set up businesses. Tudor described Qatar as “a very important strategic partner” for the EU – a country that played a key role in helping many Europeans and Europe in general during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Capitalising on the success that Qatar had with the World Cup, the envoy said he sees a lot of opportunities to strengthen these relations and co-operation with Qatar this year. Ambassador Tudor noted that the EU Delegation to Qatar is focusing on organising (hopefully) in May the senior officials meeting, which he said is like the annual strategic dialogue between Qatar and the EU. He said discussions on organising the next round of human rights dialogue in Doha are also underway, hopefully, to take place either in September or October this year.