Opposition and UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, yesterday told Parliament that neither he nor his party had requested the European Union to discontinue the GSP+ tax relief to Sri Lanka.

Even when he had attempted to discuss the extension of this facility with the EU in 2008, the government did not permit him to do so, he said.

The Opposition Leader made this statement in response to a question raised by Chief Government Whip Urban Development and Sacred Area Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena whether he had made any attempts to block GSP Plus for Sri Lanka.

Had the UNP complained against Sri Lanka to the EU, it should have been recorded in EU files and minutes on Sri Lanka, the UNP leader said, asking whether the government would table them so that the entire country would know the truth.

"After the EU had appointed a commission to investigate complaints received by the Union in 2009, I have not met any EU official. I asked the President to reach consensus after the war was over because that situation was ideal to sort out this problem. But there was no favourable reply from the government," Wickremesinghe said.

The Opposition Leader said that it was officials of the Rajapaksa government who had complained against Sri Lanka at the EU and requested that the GSP + relief given to the country not be extended.

He said incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was in the opposition had complained against Sri Lanka in overseas in 1990 and demanded that conditions be attached to any aid or grant given to the country.

"I had to represent this country at sessions as a result of these complaints at Uruguay. The then MP Nimal Siripala de Silva too, was there to present the matters at the same forum.

"I did not call such action treacherous. We had a wonderful time and we even went for cabarets together. There was no problem at all," he said.