Economy

The EU and the GCC have underlined their commitment to expanding cooperation during the sixth joint business forum held at the Residence Palace in the European Quarter of Brussels on Thursday, 24 November.  "This meeting is both welcome and timely, given the very challenging global developments we have faced, and continue to face, in 2022," said European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis in his keynote speech to the gathering. Dombrovskis said that "in this challenging environment, the EU is fully committed to strengthening economic ties between our two regional blocs. By developing our areas of mutual interest, by working in a more collaborative way, we can achieve real benefits.  "The EU is guided in this important work by our Communication on a 'Strategic Partnership with the Gulf, published in May of this year. The strategic aim of this roadmap is clear: we want to broaden and deepen our cooperation with the GCC and its member countries. We view the Gulf as a dynamic neighboring region, and an important gateway between Europe, Asia and Africa."

The European Union has launched a new project “Sustainable Energy Connectivity in Central Asia” (SECCA) ahead of the EU-Central Asia Connectivity Conference “Global Gateway for Sustainable Development”  which opened on Thursday (18 November) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. National energy authorities and experts from the Central Asian countries (CA) and representatives of the EU attended the launch event.

The SECCA project, with a total budget of 6.8 million euros, aims to promote a more sustainable energy balance in CA in accordance with EU best practices.