ISLAMABAD, May 24: The European Union (EU) on Thursday said it was “too early” to talk about Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Pakistan and the EU but indicated at lifting ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights soon.

Speaking at a press conference the European Commission Director for South Asia James Moran said it was too early at this stage to talk about FTA. "What we need to do is the homework, which is yet to be done," he said.

Secretary Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Akram Malik, who also spoke at the news conference that was held at the conclusion of first session of Pakistan-EC joint economic commission, said that the FTA was a long process and "we have made progress on that." Both the parties agreed to establish a special trade sub-group to take forward talks on the issue of free trade and future economic relations, he said.

Responding to a question on EU’s alleged discriminatory attitude towards Pakistan on FTA compared with India, Mr Moran said the EC had good economic relations with Pakistan but the first step towards inking FTA, is to have better understanding and both the development partners have initiated this process with the first session of the Joint Commission.

Talking about the ban on PIA flights to Europe, the EC director expressed satisfaction over the aircraft recovery plan tabled by Pakistan to convince the EU authorities to lift the ban and hoped the ban would be lifted "very soon".

He explained that the concern of air safety was the real driving force behind the ban but such concerns were related to some of the aircraft and not the entire PIA fleet.

The EU has increased the cooperation grant from 15 million euro per annum to 50 million for improvement of education and human resources, rural development, trade and trade related matters. Both the sides also agreed to the formation of four sub-groups to carry forward the dialogue under the Partnership and Development Cooperation Agreement signed in 2004 and these groups would report back to the Joint Commission. Responding to a question on issues of human rights, democracy and governance, the EC director said that some progress had been made on these issues but Pakistan would need to continue working hard in these areas. He, however, hastened to add that both sides (Pakistan and EU) had some concerns against each other on these issues and emphasised on bringing more reforms for poverty reduction.

James Moran said both the parties discussed a wide range of issues, including Pakistan’s role in war on terrorism, regional political and economic integration at the Saarc platform and role of both the parties in the ongoing Afghan war.

Mr Moran said the European delegation was keenly interested to support Pakistan in the strategically important areas, especially in electoral process in the country.

Responding to a question on Third Generation Agreement, which was signed and ratified by the EU, Mr James said the EU was moving ahead on it. It was, however, multidimensional agreement having crucial issues like emigration, trade and economics.

Pakistan required technical assistance to re-start export of fisheries and seafood to Europe, he said while answering a question about ban on seafood exports to Europe.