Gulf Cooperation Council Relations: five EU delegations missing

Mário David MEP has asked the High Representative of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Catherine Ashton, whether she is considering having an EU delegation in all States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), i.e. in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Portuguese MEP and Opinion Rapporteur of the Report in the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade on the relations between the EU and the GCC, deplored two years ago (in a Report adopted by the plenary in March 2011) that the diplomatic presence of the EU in the member states of the GCC remains minimal: it is composed by only one delegation for the above-mentioned 6 countries.

Thus, the Parliament insisted that following the establishment of the EEAS, the EU should increase its diplomatic presence in the region, including setting up an EU delegation in each of the six GCC member states.

"Almost 2 years have passed and we are still in the same regrettable situation! The GCC states are extremely important regional and world powers, with political and commercial ties increasing daily with the EU, and this lack of interest can give room to wrong interpretations of such friendly states and peoples! Particularly when the EU already has 140 delegations all over the world, many of them due to International Agreements but with countries that represent much less in terms of partnership", said Mário David.

"We refuse to accept that this situation is due to financial constraints and we therefore conclude that it is a political decision that we do not share and would like to see reversed as soon as possible!", said Mário David, who is looking forward to congratulating Catherine Ashton on the establishment of the 5 missing EU delegations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.