LOC21:09
18:09 GMT
Alya Al-Askari and Nawab Khan (with photos)
BRUSSELS, Oct 1 (KUNA) -- A workshhop on relations between the 27-member
European Union (EU) and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ended
here Friday evening with participants stressing that that there is much room
for wider cooperation between the two sides.
"The future of the EU-GCC relations is very promising. The message coming
from the workshop is that we need to cooperate in a range of issues including
monetary cooperation and the governance and management of international
monetary and financial and banking relations," Professor Giacomo Luciani,
Director of the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center (GRC), told the Kuwait News
Agency, KUNA.
The GRC and the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
jointly orgnaised here Friday a one-day workshop on "EU-GCC Relations and
Global Economic Issues".
Dr. John Sfakianakis chief economist at the Banque Saudi Fransi told KUNA
that the EU offers a lot of opportunities for business and it is the largest
trading partner of the GCC.
"The future is very good irrespective of the fact whether they have a Free
Trade Agreement between the two regions or not. I think overall relations are
very good," he added.
Dr. Cinzia Alcidi researcher at CEPS said that she saw in the workshop "the
will to increase cooperation and to interact from both sides. There is room
for much cooperation from both sides".
"My impression from the workshop is that the GCC is looking for a
possibility of monetary union in a different perspective than the EU," she
told KUNA.
The event was organised in the framework of the Al-Jisr project on EU-GCC
Relations with the support of the European Commission.
In the course of three workshop sessions, panels of experts from academia,
the private sector and European and Gulf regional institutions discussed the
dynamics of the global economic financial crisis with a focus on international
currency issues, the impact of the crisis on GCC economic integration as well
as issues of international trade and financial regulation and their impact on
the GCC-EU relationship.
The workshop was held under Chatham House rules which means that speakers
cannot be quoted.
Luciania, however, lamented that EU-GCC relations are "being held back by
the difficulty in solving some long standing issues notably the Free Trade
Agreement which over time has become less and less relevant".
"The fact that we are unable to sign this agreement is creating a negative
impact on other aspects of cooperation," he told KUNA.
He noted the the Jisr project underlines cooperation in many other areas
including education, security, foreign policy, energy. "In all these are there
is great potential for intensified cooperation," stressed the head of GRC.
Luciani said these kind of workshops on EU-GCC ties are very useful.
"Europe has a tendency of inward looking. It needs to be exposed and hence it
is extremely useful for the GCC countries, the media, the experts to come to
Brussels and air their views so that they become known. It also helps to know
how the EU functions and works".
Asked about the future of the the two-year Jisr project which will end in
October, he said "it is now up to the European Commission on the one side and
the GCC and it member countries to decide whether to continue this effort".
"In the two years of this project we have demonstrated that it is a useful
tool to promote and diversify relations and to bring people into these
relations not only diplomats and technocrats," he added.
A visiting GCC media delegation also participted in the workshop. (end)
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