RIYADH: The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the European Union (EU) have set out a new vision of a “strategic relationship.” It consists of a plan to revitalize and expand the framework of the joint cooperation agreement signed by the two in 1988. The GCC and the 27-member EU have also shown willingness to revive free trade talks after they were scrapped unilaterally by the GCC in December.
“Several joint projects have been either proposed or finalized by the GCC and the EU, including a meeting of counterterrorism experts at the GCC Secretariat here today,” Luigi Narbone, head of the Riyadh-based Delegation of the European Commission, told a press conference yesterday. The briefing was also attended by Antonia Calvo Puerta, deputy head of the European Commission mission and Dina El-Sourani, press officer.
During the press conference, Narbone and Puerta spoke about the progressively improving relations between the GCC and the EU, cooperation in the field of education, the situation in the Middle East, Iran, terrorism, piracy on the seas, human rights, climate change and the international economic crisis. They also highlighted topics discussed at the GCC-EU ministerial meeting in Muscat on April 29. The Muscat meeting was attended by EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Narbone.
Referring to new projects that will further improve relations between the two, Narbone said both sides are working on a higher education exchange program. About 300 Gulf students within the next few years are likely to be sent to European academic institutions under this program. A proposal to hold a dialogue between the civil societies of the Gulf and Europe has also been made, said the EC delegation chief.
“We are also ready to cooperate in the field of nuclear energy, a field in which Europe has greater expertise, especially in terms of safety and security,” said Narbone. He pointed out that the local EC delegation office was also working to hold a solar energy conference. This is in addition to a GCC-EU meeting on May 11 to discuss all regional issues, including the Middle East peace process.
Asked about the revival of the FTA talks, Narbone said the two sides are working to unfreeze political issues for the resumption of negotiations. He called for more flexibility on both sides. He said human rights and export duties were the two major problem areas. He said the EU was looking forward to cementing ties with the GCC states due to the importance of the Gulf market.
He said the two sides had a trade volume of 61 billion euros, and the GCC is the fifth largest export market for the EU. Europe, on the other hand, is the GCC’s largest trading partner. He noted that a major economic dialogue was scheduled for Brussels in mid-June this year. Another major initiative is the plan to set up an energy network. This network, which will provide a forum for research institutes in the Gulf and the EU, will focus on renewable energy issues, said Narbone.
The EU, he said, is also cooperating with the Gulf Research Center to work on several projects that will improve GCC-EU ties.
