The Gulf Research Center

and

The Institut d"Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France

Joint Workshop

The EU and the GCC: Challenges and Prospects under the French Presidency of the EU

May 21, 2008

The objective of this meeting is to closely analyze and promote topics that are of current mutual interest between the EU and the GCC. It comes at a critical time when the institutional relations between Europe and the Gulf region are growing in both their scope and intensity. In light of the French presidency of the EU to begin in July 2008, the meeting will develop and put forward a policy catalogue of issues that can further enhance EU-GCC relations and lead to greater mutual cooperation. As such the topics of politics/security, education/culture, energy security as well as trade and investment have been identified as key focal areas of the discussion.