There is increasing evidence that there is a major bar in the inner Galaxy. The distance to near end of the bar at l = 27° has been directly measured by using red clump giants, and extent of the bar (l=27° to l = -15°, |b| < 2°) has also been determined from near and mid IR surveys. The next stage is to use the powerful multi-object capability of EMIR to obtain near IR spectra of a representative selection of the sources.