The first summit between the EU and GCC ends without breakthroughs

On October 16, high-ranking government representatives from EU states and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council met in Brussels. In the wake of a new strategic engagement with the Gulf states, which the EU had already initiated in 2022, the summit marked the first time in history that top politicians from both sides came together in this context. However, there were no major strategic successes to report at the end of the meeting. Rather, the summit once again revealed what ails Europe's Gulf policy in general: a lack of political courage to take concrete steps to raise relations between the two regions to a new level. It was fitting that a key EU member was completely absent from Brussels.