The workshop brought 23 scholars together in a hybrid format from across Europe to discuss the possibilities of forming a united political, economic and security’s understanding vis-à-vis the Gulf region. Few scholars from the Gulf States were also invited to enrich the discussion.

The workshop was divided into five sessions: The first session highlighted the different approaches between the Gulf States and Europe in regards to the MENA region post 2011 uprisings. The second session focused on understanding the role of outside actors in the Gulf region, in particularly, China, Russia and the U.S. The third session was on the economic relations between Europe and the Gulf States. The fourth session discussed the Gulf region’s security and the potential to formulate and advance a new security architecture to the region. In the final session, the participants were divided into three groups where each one of them was tasked to delibrate and agree on a set of recommendations that were further discussed and refined in a general meeting that involved all the in-person participants.

The workshop began with an opening remark by Mr. Fabian Blumberg, the regional representative of the Regional Program Gulf States who welcomed the participants and emphasized the importance for Europe to formulate a united political, economic and security vision towards the Gulf region. Underlining the difficulties of this task, Mr. Blumberg noted that one of the biggest problems that face Europe in the Gulf region was that “although it has an immense interest in the Gulf region’s stability, it does not have a comprehensive security plan to offer the region besides supporting the JCPOA.” 

The Regional Program Gulf States will follow up on the recommendations and will hold more workshops on the same topic in the next year.