Start Date:

1st-January-2012

End Date:

30th-December-2013

Description:

Funding Organization: European Commission

Consortium Partners: Gulf Research Center (GRC ), Fundacion para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialogo Exterior (FRIDE), Institute for European Studies (IES), Free University of Brussels, Environmental Policy Unit of the National Technical University of Athens (EPU-NTUA)

Description:

“Promoting Deeper EU-GCC Relations” is a project in the framework of the Public Diplomacy and Outreach devoted to the European Union and EU-GCC Relations programme. It aims to reinforce cooperation between EU and GCC countries in a number of key strategic areas of mutual interest. The project contains two main areas of activities. Firstly a training part aiming to raise public awareness and understanding of the EU among the GCC society. Secondly, a series of workshops aiming to provide the framework for reflection and debate about EU-GCC relations. These actions are leading to information production which is disseminated as publications and on a devoted website platform.

A training session is held once a year in Brussels, the first one gathering GCC academics and focusing on European Studies at GCC universities and the second one gathering GCC youth focusing on a critically important sector of society in the Arab Gulf countries.

Up to six expert workshops are planned on key areas of potential cooperation between the EU and the GCC, dealing with topics such as enhancing cooperation in higher education, renewable energy, understanding political transformation in the Middle East and its relevance for EU-GCC relations, establishing a foreign policy dialogue; and the future of GCC integration.

Preliminary Schedule:

September 2012 First Training Module for GCC Academics (Brussels)

2013 (dates and place to be confirmed) Workshop on EU-GCC Higher Education Cooperation

March 3 to 4, 2013 Workshop on Political Transformation (Kuwait)

April 28 to 30, 2013 Workshop on Foreign Policy Dialogue (Qatar)

September 2013 Second Training Module for GCC Youth (Brussels)

2013 (dates and place to be confirmed) Workshop on GCC integration and the EU experience

December 2013 Workshop on Cooperation and Renewable Energies (UAE)