The EU’s interregional relationship with the GCC -an assessment of the current cooperation

Abstract: The emergence of interregionalism has been claimed to be one of the major changes affecting international relations in current times. The following study highlights the concept of interregionalism through the regional cooperation between the European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The objective of this study is to assess the current EU-GCC interregional cooperation through in-depth interviews with EU officials operating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study focuses on two of EU’s foreign policy objectives, the promotion of regional cooperation and the promotion of democracy and human rights. These policy objectives are of particular importance as the GCC member states are all authoritarian regimes. In order to assess the interregional cooperation the concept of interregionalism, EU’s two mentioned foreign policy objectives and the GCC as an organization, are addressed. The analysis, based on the theoretical framework together with the interview results, identifies the main barriers and effects of the EU-GCC cooperation as well as suggests measures that could possibly enhance the collaboration. The findings show that the promotion of the EU foreign policy objective of regionalism can be seen as a tool, and even a prerequisite, for promotion of the foreign policy objective of democracy and human rights.