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28 March 2024

GCC merger moves are too slow: ex-chief

Published
By Nadim Kawach

Gulf oil producers are very slow in their push for economic integration because of non-binding collective resolutions and this should prompt them to reform the decision-making process, their ex-secretary general has said.

Nearly 29 years after they created their economic, defence and political alliance, the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have not achieved most of the key projects they have agreed on, mainly the monetary union, said Abdullah Al Quwaiz, former GCC secretary general and Saudi ex-economy undersecretary.

In an article published in Saudi newspapers during the GCC summit in Abu Dhabi this week, Quwaiz said the currency union is still “where it is” while a project to link the region’s power network had taken nearly 20 years to fulfill and an arbitration trade centre proposed by Bahrain materialized after eight years.

Quwaiz said the GCC countries, which control over 40 per cent of the world’s proven oil wealth, have been very late in realizing most of their merger plans mainly because of the “delay in issuing decisions by the GCC summits and the delay in implementation of those decisions by individual members.”

He said such obstacles could be overcome by the introduction of new laws giving priority to summit resolutions over local laws and legislations. Quwaiz made other proposals to ensure quicker implementation of the integration process in the GCC, which was created in Abu Dhabi in 1981.

“There should be new laws in each member country asserting that the resolutions taken by the GCC heads of state and all those related to the economic pact signed by members after they created their council are given precedence over national laws and legislations,” he said.

“Another measure that should be taken is to develop and upgrade the GCC systems, mainly the supreme council (heads of state), the ministerial council (foreign ministers) and the secretariat…these systems must be upgraded to supra-national institutions as is the case in the European Union.”

Quwaiz said more important decisions should be given priority in their implementation even though they are new decisions.

“Arbitration systems in the GCC, mainly the economic systems, are mostly government establishments, which are party to disputes…to give these systems more credibility, they must be fully autonomous and separate from government institutions which could be party to disputes,” he said.

“GCC countries should also publicize the problems and obstacles facing the implementation of collective resolutions…they have to expose members that are responsible for those obstacles as a way to press them to move ahead.”

Quwaiz said it was time for the GCC nations to act to tackle those problems which “have started to negatively affect the council’s credibility and its capability of attaining the goals and ambitions aspired by their people.”

He said it was easy for the six members to take decisions, adding that some of them are held up and others are delayed for long periods of time.

“Each GCC member has to be convinced by any decision and how it will benefit its own institution before it agrees on it within the council…each member must be convinced by any project proposed collectively and whether it will benefit from that project…the nature of the GCC is that it is a group of sovereign countries and this means that any one of them has the right to take whatever it deems necessary, including blocking the implementation of a collective decision.”

Quwaiz also said the Riyadh-based GCC Secretariat still lacks what he described as “sovereign powers” as it has not been upgraded to a “supra-national” institution as is the case in the EU Commission.

“It is true that the GCC authorizes the Secretariat to implement collective resolutions and given them precedence over national decisions, this is not necessarily happening…this is also applicable to other GCC institutions,” he said.

“It has become a tradition that the GCC heads of state would request each member to issue instructions to its executive institutions to enforce any collective decisions for two reasons—first is to ensure that those institutions have received the instructions for implementation and second to affirm the sovereignty of each member in taking its own decisions…but the problem is that those members are sometimes very late in issuing those instructions…when they are finally issued, they are too late in reaching the competent institutions.”