Brussels, 07/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The EU/GCC (the countries of the Gulf: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) joint cooperation council, which was instituted in the framework of the cooperation agreement of 1989, will meet this Tuesday 8 May in Riyadh for its 17th annual session. The meeting will be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and Germany (which currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU), in the person of Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. High Representative of the EU for the CFSP Javier Solana, and European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, will also take part in the meeting, which will see a review of the cooperation set in place between the two groups of countries. Amongst other things, they will discuss the issue of reinforcing cooperation in the field of energy, the details of which were the subject of preliminary discussions by a group of experts, on 27 April. Cooperation is also to be extended to monetary issues. The European Central Bank is helping the countries of the Gulf to put together their own single currency project.
In reality, EU/GCC cooperation currently remains somewhat latent, due to a lack of sufficient political goodwill on the part of the countries of the Gulf (several of them tend to prefer to “go it alone” and conclude separate free-trade agreements with the United States, to the great chagrin of Saudi Arabia) and due to a certain vagueness in European intentions. This is borne out by the successive reports on the conclusion of negotiations for a free-trade agreement with the EU. Both sides regularly assure the other that these negotiations are complete but the date of signature, which has been announced on many occasions over the last four years, has not yet been set. At each contact, both sides go no further than to express their almost ritual satisfaction at the conclusion of discussions, but without going any further in the formalisation of an agreement.
The agenda of the Riyadh meeting also provides for the joint examination of the situation in the region: Middle East, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, particularly developments in Tehran's nuclear potential, which is of great concern to the neighbouring oil monarchies. The countries of the GCC and the EU alike plead in favour of a diplomatic solution to the problem of the Iranian nuclear dossier. (fb)