Senior European Union officials have pledged to upgrade ties with Libya after authorities in Tripoli released six Bulgarian citizens.
"This decision will open the way for a new and enhanced relationship between the EU and Libya," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Ferrero-Waldner was a key player involved in securing the release of the medics.
"This news will ... assist in the normalization of relations and open the possibility for closer cooperation through the Euro-Mediterranean partnership," Graham Watson, the leader of the European Parliament's liberal group said.
He warned, however, that Libya still had to prove that it can be a reliable partner to the EU in the long term.
Although relations between the EU and Libya have improved in recent years, the country is not a member of the bloc's 11-year-old Euro-Mediterranean partnership which covers all of the other North African countries.
The five medics and the Palestinian doctor, who arrived in Bulgaria on Tuesday after spending eight years in prison following their conviction for infecting 400 children with the HIV/AIDS virus at a hospital in Libya, were immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.
After Libya released the six medical workers its foreign minister agreed to form a 'full partnership' with the EU saying there was a 'cooperation agreement' signed between Libya and the EU as it committed to an aid package to Libya.
Under the aid package, the EU will help develop the country's education system, preserve its historical antiquities and secure the borders eliminating illegal immigration into the country.
