October 15, 2026

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October 15, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Year-End Signing Looms For EU-India Free Trade AgreementCanberra Awaits Signature Of EU-Australia Free Trade AgreementMcGrath Readies Digital Fairness Act For Late 2026Platform Work Directive Deadline Nears As Capitals LagMarket Integration Package Gives ESMA Direct PowersFreedom Of Navigation Sanctions Test EU Unity On Hormuz ShippingTobacco Tax Directive Stays Stuck As One Veto Can Sink The DealLeaders Weigh Targeted EU Energy Price Measures As Gas Jumps 140 percentEU Space Funding After 2027 Puts Galileo In QuestionUkraine Accession Agriculture Terms Fence Off Grain AccessVAT Reverse Charge Mechanism Set For Four More YearsGulf Speakers Prepare The EU-GCC Summit At Parliament In BrusselsPlenary Vote Looms On The Critical Raw Materials Act RewriteMercosur Agreement Survives Poland’s Bid To Freeze Provisional UseGlobal Gateway Africa Hits €120 Billion As 2027 Target Draws NearEU Ukraine Loan Covers 2026 While Frozen Assets Wait For DecemberRussian Diplomats Movement Curbs Move Toward Host Country LimitsKosovo Growth Plan Money Hinges On A Surge Of ReformsIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Targets Late October Amid Language DisputeAI in Science Summit Tests RAISE In Dublin This WeekYear-End Signing Looms For EU-India Free Trade AgreementCanberra Awaits Signature Of EU-Australia Free Trade AgreementMcGrath Readies Digital Fairness Act For Late 2026Platform Work Directive Deadline Nears As Capitals LagMarket Integration Package Gives ESMA Direct PowersFreedom Of Navigation Sanctions Test EU Unity On Hormuz ShippingTobacco Tax Directive Stays Stuck As One Veto Can Sink The DealLeaders Weigh Targeted EU Energy Price Measures As Gas Jumps 140 percentEU Space Funding After 2027 Puts Galileo In QuestionUkraine Accession Agriculture Terms Fence Off Grain AccessVAT Reverse Charge Mechanism Set For Four More YearsGulf Speakers Prepare The EU-GCC Summit At Parliament In BrusselsPlenary Vote Looms On The Critical Raw Materials Act RewriteMercosur Agreement Survives Poland’s Bid To Freeze Provisional UseGlobal Gateway Africa Hits €120 Billion As 2027 Target Draws NearEU Ukraine Loan Covers 2026 While Frozen Assets Wait For DecemberRussian Diplomats Movement Curbs Move Toward Host Country LimitsKosovo Growth Plan Money Hinges On A Surge Of ReformsIndonesia EU CEPA Signing Targets Late October Amid Language DisputeAI in Science Summit Tests RAISE In Dublin This Week

Gulf Speakers Prepare The EU-GCC Summit At Parliament In Brussels

Dua Lipa
European Politics Reporter, External Relations and Diplomacy

Brussels: Parliament President Roberta Metsola chairs a conference with Gulf parliamentary leaders on Friday 16 October, eight days before the EU-GCC summit in Saudi Arabia. The meeting brings speakers from the Gulf Cooperation Council to the European Parliament to prepare the political ground for that EU-GCC summit. It ends with a joint statement.

Ahmed bin Salman Al Musallam, Speaker of Bahrain’s Council of Representatives, speaks for the GCC presidency, and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi joins him. Speakers and chairs of parliamentary bodies from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar also attend. Metsola, Al Musallam and Albudaiwi give the opening addresses.

The agenda covers freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, energy security, and the wider impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Delegates also discuss open trade and connectivity. Those topics mirror the questions that leaders will take up in Saudi Arabia.

The Council confirmed in early September that the second EU-GCC summit takes place on 24 October in Saudi Arabia, in its press release on the summit. The parliamentary meeting therefore works as a curtain-raiser for the leaders’ talks.

The GCC, founded in 1981, groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Metsola last met Gulf speakers in Abu Dhabi on 23 June 2025. Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula holds regular interparliamentary meetings with Gulf countries.

Parliament has already set out its line in a resolution on the EU Gulf strategy. It calls for tailored partnerships with the GCC as a whole and with individual Gulf countries. The Friday conference tests how far Gulf legislators share that approach.

Hormuz and the Red Sea matter to European buyers because a large share of seaborne energy and manufactured goods passes through those waters. Any disruption there raises shipping costs and insurance premiums, and it feeds quickly into consumer prices in Europe. Parliament uses the conference to press that point directly with the Gulf delegations before leaders meet.

Trade and connectivity complete the picture. Gulf states look to Europe for investment partners and export markets, while the EU wants steadier energy supply and new logistics links. The EU-GCC summit gives both sides a chance to turn those shared interests into concrete commitments, and the parliamentary track can help keep that momentum alive afterwards.

Parliament does not sign summit outcomes, yet a joint statement from legislators on both sides tells leaders where parliamentary support stands. European capitals that import energy and depend on open sea lanes have a direct stake in the Hormuz and Red Sea language. Watch that wording closely, because it will frame expectations for the EU-GCC summit on 24 October.

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