Golf Cooperation Council

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Golf Cooperation Council
 

Member states of the GKR
Arabic name مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج العربية
Seat of the organs Riyadh , Saudi Arabia
Chair Chairman of the Council: Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani
Member States 6 :
Official and working languages Arabic 
surface 3,199,940 km²
population 39.371.307
Population density 12 inhabitants per km²
gross domestic product US $ 956 billion
founding As The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
May 25, 1981
Currencies Every state has its own currency.
(Common currency Khaliji planned)
Time zone UTC + 3 , UTC + 4
 
Each state has its own TLD domain and its own telephone area code

The Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC , English Gulf Cooperation Council , GCC , officially Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf , Arab مجلس التعاون لدول الخليج العربية, DMG Maǧlis at-taʿāwun li-duwal al-ḫalīǧ al-ʿarabiyya , English Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf , CCASG ), or Gulf Council for short , is an international organization that comprises six of the seven states of the Arabian Peninsula . It was founded in Abu Dhabi on May 25, 1981 by Bahrain , Qatar , Kuwait , Oman , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to shield these states from the effects of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 and the First Gulf War in 1980.

The organization strives for the cooperation of its members in the field of foreign and security policy as well as the promotion of economic and social relations between them, for which purpose the movement of goods was liberalized in 1982 as part of the Unified Economic Agreement . A customs union was decided for 2005 , which was finally brought forward to 2003. The introduction of a common currency was planned by 2010. However, different political goals and a number of dividing issues hamper integration efforts.

The members are obliged to provide mutual assistance in the event of a defense. The GCC maintains a joint defense force of 5,000 men. The GCC worked closely with the United States to protect against Iran .

The GCC region is of strategic importance to the European Union . The GCC is the Union's main trading partner in the Arab world. It accounts for around half of all trade with the Arab states and around 4% of total exports from the European Union to third countries.

Germany's arms exports to GCC countries were worth 1.42 billion euros in 2012 (2011: 570 million euros).

Members

country Capital Residents Area
(km²)		 GDP
(MILLION USD )		 currency
BahrainBahrain Bahrain Manama 1,234,571 716 15,354 Bahraini dinar
QatarQatar Qatar Doha 2,120,129 11,437 173,800 Qatari riyal
KuwaitKuwait Kuwait Kuwait 4,039,445 17,818 95,924 Kuwaiti dinar
OmanOman Oman Muscat 4,226,061 309,500 35,990 Omani rial
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Riad 31,521,418 2,240,000 572.200 Saudi riyal
United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi 8.264.070 83,600 163.296 UAE dirham
Membership requested
YemenYemen Yemen Sanaa 25,408,000 536,869 20,040 Yemen rial
JordanJordan Jordan Amman 6,343,000 89,342 16,011 Jordanian dinar
MoroccoMorocco Morocco Rabat 31,627,428 446,550 73,429 Moroccan dirham

organs

The headquarters of the organization is in Riyadh . As the supreme body of the organization meets twice a year to the Supreme Council ( Supreme Council ), in which the leaders of the member states are represented. In addition, there is a committee for economic cooperation ( Economic Cooperation Committee ), which meet regularly, the finance ministers of the Member States.

In preparation for monetary union was Committee of the monetary authorities and the Central Bank Governors ( Committee of Monetary Agencies and Central Bank Governors ) formed in the current issues of money and monetary policy are discussed.

Economic Cooperation

All member states are monarchies . Officially, they only aimed for economic integration. They renounced a military pact in order to keep the reactions of other Arab states lower. In 1983 they formed a free trade area , in 2001 a common market , and in 2008 a customs union . The common market gave all GCC citizens, approximately 45 million in total, a free right of establishment. Citizens and companies from a GCC state are treated like nationals. An unhindered movement of capital was also allowed.

Monetary union

Original plan

The objective of establishing a monetary union by 2010 was embedded in a general economic integration process. This goal was first formulated in 1982, but it was not until 2000 that the Board of Governors authorized the Money Committee and the Finance Ministers' Group to work out a timetable for the introduction of a common currency.

In the spring of 2001 the last two bodies set up a working group to work out the requirements for establishing a monetary union. The first results were presented at the meeting of heads of state and government in Muscat (December 2001). The Board of Governors agreed on the following procedure:

  1. By the end of 2002, all national currencies should be pegged to the US dollar .
  2. By the end of 2005, the Monetary Committee should agree with the finance ministers on convergence criteria for a member state to join the monetary union.
  3. Between 2005 and 2010 the criteria should be met by the applicant states.
  4. The new currency should be introduced at the turn of the year 2009/2010.

Compared with other monetary integration efforts, the GCC project is the most ambitious and most advanced. The prospects for the monetary union have so far appeared good - both real and monetary convergence are well advanced and, in contrast to other integration areas ( e.g. Mercosur ), the goals set were initially achieved.

However, Oman announced in December 2006 that it would not join the monetary union in 2010. In 2007, Kuwait decoupled its currency from the US dollar and has since pegged it to a basket of currencies . In other Member States, such a move is sometimes also considered, in particular because of the decline in the exchange rate of the US dollar observed between 2007 and summer 2008. So far, however, no other member state has followed Kuwait's move. The central bank president of the UAE is also said to have said that he does not expect a monetary union until around 2015. The project suffered a significant setback in May 2009 when the UAE withdrew. This took place shortly after it was decided that the GCC central bank should be located in Riyadh. The UAE took the view that they were entitled to have the central bank set up in their country because they were the first country to offer to host it and because the UAE did not yet have a GCC administrative unit.

In terms of its economic importance, the Gulf currency area would be the second most important supranational currency integration after the euro area .

Delayed introduction

On December 1, 2013, the introduction of the common currency from the end of December was surprisingly announced. The common currency of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be pegged to the US dollar. Oman and the UAE would not have taken this step at this point in time. However, on December 3, the press release was withdrawn by the Gulf Monetary Council .

As of May 2015, the central banks of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are members of the Gulf Monetary Council . There is no timetable for the introduction of the single currency. However, the integration in the GCC was strengthened in the same month by the coordination of a common VAT policy.

Patent Convention

The Gulf Cooperation Council ratified during its 13th session on 21 and 22 September 1992, the GCC Patent Convention and the regional founded Patent Office GCC Patent Office , based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The first patent applications were received there on October 3, 1998. A patent granted under the GCC Patent Convention is immediately valid in all member states.

Military cooperation

In 1984 a joint GCC reaction force was created, the Peninsula Shield Force , stationed in Hafar Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia . The GCC has been waging war in Yemen under the leadership of Saudi Arabia since 2015 . However, Oman is not participating in the operation .

See also

literature

  • Ursula Braun: The Cooperation Council of Arab States in the Gulf - A New Force? Baden-Baden 1986, ISBN 3-7890-1290-4 .
  • Nadia Rinawi: The Golf Cooperation Council. House work. 2002. (online)
  • John A. Sandwick: The Gulf Cooperation Council . American-Arab Affaires Council, Westview Press, 1987.
  • Michael Sturm, Nikolaus Siegfried: Regional Monetary Integration in the Member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council. ( ECB Occasional Paper Series. No.  31). 2005.
  • Michael Teupel: Bahrain - The Kingdom. Business leader of the GCC. Bahrain 2007.
  • Christian Koch: The Golf Cooperation Council as a regional security organization. In: KAS foreign information. 11/2010, pp. 24-39.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Prasanta Kumar Pradhan: The GCC – Iran Conflict and its Strategic Implications for the Gulf Region. In: Strategic Analysis. Vol. 35, no. 2, March 2011, p. 265.
  2. ↑ German companies double arms deals with Gulf states. In: Spiegel online . February 22, 2013. The extent to which the Bundestag should be involved in arms export licenses is a matter of dispute ( bundestag.de ).
  3. ^ Yemen to join GCC by 2015. In: Arabian Business. August 27, 2007.
  4. ↑ a b Asma Alsharif: 2-Gulf bloc to consider Jordan, Morocco membership. In: Reuters. May 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Gulf states agree on common currency. In: Handelsblatt. December 30, 2008.
  6. ↑ Four GCC countries to announce common currency by end-December , accessed December 3, 2013.
  7. ↑ Revocation , accessed December 3, 2013.
  8. ↑ "About GCC Patent Office" ( Memento from December 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )