Brussels, 23/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The EU-GCC Council, meeting for the tenth time on Monday evening, approved a number of recommendations expressing its determination to pursue the cooperation entered into under the June 1988 agreement. In parallel, the Foreign Ministers of the EU and the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) decided to relaunch negotiation of the second agreement on free trade. The prospects for such an agreement seemed to be diminishing in recent months, due to the postponement to March 2005 of implementation of the customs union between the six oil-rich monarchies, and given the difficulty for the EU to respond positively to the GCC's requests for further opening of the Community market to certain of their oil products, first-fusion aluminium and fisheries products. For the European Commission, such requests can only be accepted in the framework of the new comprehensive agreement to be negotiated.
Negotiations are set to resume in early June and will be matched with a meeting of experts to deal with the specific case of aluminium. The negotiations could now proceed at a good pace, concluding before the end of the year. This, at least, is the hope of the head of the GCC delegation, Saud Al-Faisal, Wahabi Foreign Minister, but a more reasonable expectation would be conclusion in 2001. The European side hopes the Gulf countries will be able to anticipate implementation of their customs union -before 2005- which is a condition for the entry into force of the free trade agreement with the EU.
Ministers also reviewed all aspects of cooperation under the existing agreement: investment, sectoral cooperation (standards, energy, environment, enterprises, customs, information technology) and decentralised cooperation (media, universities). Different subjects of a political nature were also discussed: human rights, security in the region (particularly in Iraq and Iran) and the situation in the Middle East. EUROPE will be back with details on the results of the Joint Council session and on the comments made at the final press conference by Messrs Al-Faisal, Gama and Patten.