Brussels, 19/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) are to meet on 23 April in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, for the 11th session of the Joint Council established in the context of the cooperation agreement signed in June 1988. After the tenth session, held in May 2000 in Brussels, the same agenda is foreseen to cover an exchange of views of a political nature (mainly centred on the situation in the Middle East and in the region) and reciprocal information on recent developments within each group of countries. The European Union should also explain the developments of its security and defence policy.
Discussions will also cover economic aspects, whether directly linked to the bilateral nature of cooperation (joint projects or actions) or of a more general nature. They should above all cover the problem of hydrocarbon supply security in Europe, with stabilised prices. Despite reticence noted at the beginning of this affair, dialogue seems well under way and, according to Community sources, the question should appear on the agenda of discussions this week in Bahrain as well as during the bilateral talks that European Commission Pascal Lamy will hold two days before the formal session, mainly during his visit to Saudi Arabia from 20 April. A short visit by Mr Lamy to Kuwait is said to be on the programme, but has not been confirmed.
Representing the Commission during this session of the Joint Council, Mr Lamy is expected to discuss with his different interlocutors on the prospect of concluding a second agreement with the GCC, geared to free trade. After a long period of little progress, the issue now seems to have come out of deadlock since the end of last year and the Commission, as it has pledged to do, has submitted to the Council a project enlarging the negotiating brief entrusted to it in 1991 (a brief that the GCC partners had considered both limited and ill-balanced). The Commission's proposal with a view to modifying this mandate has been on the table of the Fifteen since Wednesday 18 April. The Commission is expected to propose taking into account recent developments affecting world trade (in the field of services, intellectual property, commerce and industry, public procurement and competition, and also regarding the approach towards the emergence of frequent regional groups in the world).
This last theme - regional integration - is the focus of talks in progress. The completion of the customs Union process of the six Gulf oil monarchies is a precondition for concluding the mutual free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the EU and the GCC, and the delays in conceiving a common customs tariff (CCT) have had a negative impact on negotiations between the EU and the GCC. The tariff scheme is now known but its implementation has been delayed, until 2005 at the latest. The European Commission has already had the opportunity to say that it hoped this process would be speeded up in order to facilitate completion of the negotiations on the free trade agreement. Another condition is the accession by all GCC countries to the WTO (World Trade Organisation). Four are already members. Saudi Arabia is on the point of joining, but there could be delays as the accession by the Oman Sultanate to the WTO is less predictable in the short term. The matter is not, however, urgent as the European Commission must first of all receive the EU Council's endorsement of its new suggestions on the content of the mandate before fixing new dates for meeting the GCC Secretariat General.