Brussels, 12/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Foreign Ministers of the EU and the six countries of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) are to meet in New York on Wednesday at the dinner that has become a tradition on the fringe of the UN General Assembly. As every year, they will broach major topical international issues, and foremost the situation in the Middle East and the situation in the region (internal developments, Iraq, Iran, etc.).
Ministers will also discuss developments in EU-GCC cooperation under the first agreement of June 1988 and the currents of negotiations over a free-trade area. The latter notably progressed before the summer period and the negotiators of the European Commission and the GCC General Secretariat intend meeting again mid-November, probably in Riyadh.
The issue of oil prices is expected to be raised and their effect on the European economy will be broached in New York even though it is not formally on the agenda for the meeting, as it is not a subject covered by the June 1988 cooperation agreement and is not directly involved in ongoing negotiations over a free-trade area. It has not been ruled out that in future mention should be made of the situation on the oil markets in the usual exchange of views - notably at sessions of the Joint Cooperation Council - on the respective economic situations and, especially in negotiations over the second agreement in which the Gulf states are calling for better access to the European market for teir processed oil products.
The question should anyway be brought up at the seminar to be held in Dubai on 8 and 9 October (United Arab Emirates), within the economic forum organised each year in the Emirate. The central subject will be the use of the euro in commercial transactions and discussions focused on trade between the EU and the Gulf States and Asia (rather than on the - theoretical - hypothesis of the use of the euro as reference currency for the purchase of hydro-fuels). Several prominent Europeans are expected, including former European Commissioner Jacques Santer, George Pineau of the ECB and Philippe Maystadt, EIB President, and representatives of the "European Financial Convention", association that promotes the use of the new European currency. No invitation, however, is said to have reached the European commission, neither its services responsible for external relations nor those dealing with issues linked to the currency. Sources in Brussels tell us that, whatever, it is not a question of an EU/GCC meeting of ministers for the economy and trade as announced by certain press agencies.