The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

Establishment and objectives of the GCC

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – whose member states are Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – was founded in Abu Dhabi in 1981.

The Council’s goal is peace and security in the region through cooperation in the spheres of foreign and security policy, as well as economic integration through the promotion of economic and societal relations among member states. Two years after its establishment, the Gulf Cooperation Council launched a free-trade zone in 1983. In 2003, the GCC Customs Union entered into force, while the GCC Common Market came into being on 1 January 2008. A single currency is to be introduced by 2013. The member states have entered into a mutual defence pact and the Peninsula Shield Forces were set up in 1986 as a joint defence force.

The organization is based in Riyadh. The current Secretary-General is Abd-al-Rahman al-Attiya (Qatar). The GCC’s highest decision-making body is the Supreme Council, composed of Heads of State and Government, which convenes once a year during a GCC summit. The GCC Presidency rotates annually. Kuwait will hold it in 2010.

The GCC states cover an area of just under 2.7 million square kilometres, have 36 million inhabitants and a GDP of approximately 855 billion US dollars (2008). These countries account for more than 60% of the oil produced in the entire Middle East and North Africa region. Their share of the world’s oil reserves is 55%, and their share of global oil production is around 20%. Saudi Arabia alone accounts for 70% of the GCC’s economic output.

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EU relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council

The GCC is the European Union’s most important trading partner in the Arab world. It is Europe’s sixth largest export market. Conversely, the EU is the GCC’s number one trading partner. In 2008, EU exports to GCC states amounted to 68.8 billion euro (17.5 billion euro of this being accounted for by German exports alone), while imports to the EU from GCC countries totalled 38.4 billion euro.

In 1988, the EU and the GCC concluded a cooperation agreement which has been in force since January 1990. It provides the framework for a comprehensive expansion of economic relations. Working groups were set up for the spheres of economic cooperation, energy and the environment. Once a year, the EU-GCC Joint Council meets at Foreign Minister level, with the sessions alternating between Brussels and the country holding the GCC Presidency. In 2007 Germany co-chaired the meeting in Riyadh. The last session took place in Muscat on 29 April 2009 and the next meeting will be held in Brussels in spring 2010.

The central project of the GCC and the EU is the negotiation of a free trade agreement. The negotiations have been underway since 1990. For a long time there was hardly any progress and the negotiations were even suspended between 1991 and 2001. However, they have now almost been concluded.

As well as relations in the economics and trade sphere, the EU is seeking to expand cooperation in areas such as energy security, environmental protection, culture and education, the fight against terrorism and, above all, the political and security fields.

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