February 11, 2011EU Parliament calls for strategic partnership with GCC
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) adopted here Thursday a draft report calling for closer ties and cooperation between the 27-member EU and the 6-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
"The central message of the report is to establish a real political cooperation between GCC and the EU," the Rapporteur of the EP report, Dominique Baudis, told the Kuwait news agency (KUNA).
"We must have a strategical partnership between the GCC and the EU. Our objective is to give a new impetus to our ties," he added.
Earlier today, 63 out of 68 members of the Committee voted in favore of the report, three against and two abstained.
The report calls on the EU to propose a strategic partnership with the GCC and its member states commensurate with the respective roles of the two entities internationally.
"The central message of the report is to establish a real political cooperation between GCC and the EU," the Rapporteur of the EP report, Dominique Baudis, told the Kuwait news agency (KUNA).
"We must have a strategical partnership between the GCC and the EU. Our objective is to give a new impetus to our ties," he added.
Earlier today, 63 out of 68 members of the Committee voted in favore of the report, three against and two abstained.
The report calls on the EU to propose a strategic partnership with the GCC and its member states commensurate with the respective roles of the two entities internationally.
It highlights the importance, to that end, of introducing regular summit meetings of heads of state and government.
The report underlines that "the GCC currently remains the only stable regional organisation based on multilateralism." It emphasises that concluding the free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and the GCC remains a priority, that failure to conclude it would not be in either party's interests.
"We are discussing since 20 years the FTA and till now it is not concluded. We think we must give a political dimension to our relation which will help to conclude the FTA," Baudis, a French Member of the European Parliament, told KUNA.
The reports notes that the Gulf region is emerging as "a new global economic hub comprising the member states of the GCC." It calls on the EU's External Action Service to devote more resources to the Gulf region and for new diplomatic missions to be opened there.
The report will now go before the full session of the European Parliament for adoption in March.
"I am sure it will be adopted by the European Parliament," said Baudis.
KUNA
