Brussels, 09/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, representatives of the EU and of the Organisation of Petroleum Producing Countries (OPEC) stressed the importance of maintaining and extending EU/OPEC dialogue to help boost the stability, transparency and predictability of the international petroleum market. In a joint statement published at the end of the first meeting held under EU/OPEC energy dialogue, the European delegation (comprising Luxembourg economy minister Jeannot Krecke, the Dutch economy Minister Laurens Jan Brinkhorst and the British energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks), and the OPEC delegation (including its current president, Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahd al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti energy minister) acknowledge the "importance of an effective framework enabling an exchange of views on energy issues of common interest, including oil market developments, and the potential this has for contributing to stability, transparency and predictability in the international oil market". Dialogue must be maintained, whether oil prices are high or low, the participants stressed. In a joint statement, the EU and OPEC state that all parties, producers and consumers alike, must continue their efforts to achieve greater stability on the oil market, "with reasonable prices". Both sides agreed to continue and extend their dialogue and cooperation on the four following areas: -developments on the oil market (in the short and long-term); -energy policies; -energy technologies; -multilateral issues related to energy. Meetings, to include workshops, will be held on these subjects, with the possible participation of other international organisations. In the very short term, it has been agreed to hold a Round Table in the second half of 2005 on the subject "development of the oil market". In the first half of 2006, the conference will be held on new energy technologies, followed in the second half of the year by another Round Table on energy policy. The second ministerial meeting of EU/OPEC energy dialogue will take place in Vienna, at a date which has yet to be decided on.