EU, GCC to strengthen civil aviation cooperation

Senior officials from the 28-member EU and the 6-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ended two-day civil aviation meeting Wednesday night after an extensive "constructive and open exchange of views and deliberations." According to an EU statement, received by KUNA Thursday, the two parties recognised the importance of continuing the dialogue and cooperation in various areas of civil aviation.
They recognised that both fair competition and liberalisation are important for developing international aviation relations.
It was the second EU-GCC aviation dialogue. The first meeting was held in Riyadh on 12-13 November 2013.
The Brussels meeting was attended by officials from GCC member states, the GCC Secretariat General, the European Commission, EU Member States as well as representatives of industry stakeholders on both sides.
The dialogue was co-chaired by Margus Rahuoja, Head of Cabinet of Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of transport, and Fawaz A. Al-Farah, President of Kuwait Civil Aviation.
Kuwait currently holds the Presidency of the GCC which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE.
The two sides decided to establish a working group to develop a draft fair competition clause with a view to agreeing this draft clause at the next meeting of the EU-GCC Aviation Dialogue; The meeting also decided to establish a working group to explore closer technical cooperation in a range of areas of civil aviation, such as safety, security and air traffic management.
The statement noted that subject to satisfactory progress at the third meeting of the EU-GCC Aviation Dialogue a third working group shall be formed to explore and establish the potential benefits of a comprehensive EU-GCC air transport agreement.
Based on the outcome of the third working group and results of economic analysis, the European Commission would consider taking positive steps towards seeking the required negotiating mandate for the agreement.
The third EU-GCC Aviation Dialogue will take place on 9-10 March 2015 in Qatar.