KUWAIT: Gulf Cooperation Council parliament and Shura council chiefs have come up with a number of joint recommendations at the end of a meeting in Kuwait yesterday. They decided that Kuwait will host a conference of the committee of parliament chiefs on GCC economic integration in 2014, while Kuwait’s National Assembly will also be responsible for organizing a trip involving the regional group to the US Congress. Gratitude was expressed for a report by Bahrain’s Council of Representatives on geopolitical blocs that are more developed than the GCC, like the European Union and a study on foreign media policies of the region’s parliaments. Other internal issues for the meeting were also adopted like a project for a joint website and a committee tasked with placing a set of laws for the meeting.
Two cables of gratitude were dispatched to both His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for attending the event. At the conclusion of the talks, Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim told reporters that the attendees “made sure to adopt the tangible proposals and to discard others that were unrealistic.” The GCC member states are moving from cooperation to full integration among each other with bold and fast-paced moves, Al-Ghanim said. “We, people of the Arab Gulf states, feel that we belong to one system which is a good thing that should be built upon to reach integration after achieving cooperation,” Al-Ghanim told reporters after the first session of Kuwait-hosted 7th meeting of GCC parliaments and Shura Councils speakers. “This meeting’s agenda includes several proposed resolutions to accelerate GCC integration efforts.” He went on to say that the conferees have “tried to be more realistic, thus they chose economic integration to start with because it is the closest to the parliamentary legislation.” Al-Ghanim added that the GCC countries are trying to benefit from the success story of the European Union in this regard.
He described the first session as “very successful,” adding that it showed the desire of all GCC parliamentarians to overcome differences to expand joint action and help achieve integration goal. He disclosed that he has proposed forming a committee to evaluate the parliamentary work in the GCC countries. He noted that the proposal was well-received by the conferees. The first session of the 7th meeting of GCC parliament and Shura speakers kicked off on Sunday. Chaired by Al-Ghanim, the session focused on the draft agenda of the seventh meeting which was opened in presence of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. — KUNA
