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1973 The European Community (EC) established diplomatic relations with Bangladesh, and Food Aid to Bangladesh started.
1976 The first formal agreement between the European Commission and the Bangladesh Government, the "Commercial Co-operation Agreement" was signed. Food aid was the predominant field of assistance from EC to Bangladesh in the initial years.
1977 The first session of the Joint Commission took place. The two major areas of activities were trade promotion and economic cooperation.
1980 The EC-Bangladesh Agreement on Trade and Jute Products was concluded. The European Community agreed to remove all quantitative restrictions on jute imports from Bangladesh from 1 January 1984.
1982 The European Commission established its Dhaka Office under the South Asia Representative office in Delhi.
1988 The EC and the government of Bangladesh signed a Science and Technology Cooperation agreement. The cooperation aimed at strengthening the research capabilities of Bangladesh, with a focus on agriculture and water resources management.
1989 The European Commission upgraded its representation in Bangladesh, establishing a full fledged delegation office in Dhaka.
1993 The first EC-Bangladesh Country Strategy Paper was published. Initially covering the period of 1993-1996 but later extended to 1998, this paper focused EC's development strategy on poverty alleviation and food security in Bangladesh. NGO cooperation received increased emphasis during this period.
1998 Particularly severe flooding resulted in some 30 million people being made homeless To mitigate the consequences, additional food aid worth €58 million was granted to Bangladesh.
1999 The second EC-Bangladesh Country Strategy Paper was published. It covered the period of 1998-2001, with the emphasis remaining on direct poverty reduction.
2001 The EC-Bangladesh Cooperation Agreement was concluded. In October, at the invitation of the Bangladesh authorities, the European Union Election Observation Mission was deployed to observe the general elections.
2002 The European Commission widened its development approach in Bangladesh by including human and social development as well as economic development and governance.
2006 A large EU Election Observation Mission was fielded for the 9th parliamentary elections but subsequently suspended amidst concerns over the fairness of preparations for the polls. The elections were postponed.
2007 Over 3 400 people perished when Cyclone Sidr swept though the country in November. The European Commission allocated an initial €8.5 million (followed up with a further €12 million in 2008) to provide vital supplies of water, food, shelter and household items such as soap, cooking utensils, blankets and jerry-cans.
2008 Photo voter registration of over 80 million voters in Bangladesh completed successfully. The European Commission was the largest provider of financial assistance to this project.
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