Sharjah 24 – WAM: Speakers of parliaments in the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC, member countries commended the UAE’s role in strengthening the GCC’s joint parliamentary action, as well as its efforts to promote cooperation and coordination during the presidency of the Federal National Council, FNC, of their 13th regular meeting.

It also lauded the FNC’s parliamentary achievements, which include communicating with geopolitical groups from around the world, under the framework of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, and its coordination with the European Parliament to hold future meetings with the GCC, to reinforce their relations and coordinate on issues of mutual concern.

They made their statements during the 14th regular meeting of GCC speakers of Shura councils, the councils of representatives," the FNC and the national assemblies," which was hosted by Bahrain Monday via video conferencing and chaired by Fawzia Zainal, Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Bahrain.

During the meeting, Saqr Ghobash, Speaker of the FNC, stated that despite the coronavirus, COVID-19, pandemic, the FNC has ensured the continuity of its periodic meetings and highlighted the effective role of national parliaments in communicating with their counterparts from international parliamentary groups, stressing that the FNC contacted the European Parliament to hold joint meetings with GCC member parliaments.

He then pointed out that the FNC also contacted the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean, GRULAC, to enhance its cooperation with this key geopolitical group, which plays a key role in supporting the visions and propositions of heads of GCC parliaments during IPU meetings, adding that serious steps are being taken to hold a seminar on the GCC’s joint policies for the post-COVID-19 era.

The FNC’s proposition on the GCC’s joint work was approved, and the theme of the current term was chosen to be, "Emergency Legislations to Reduce the Repercussions of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises."

The recommendations of the Parliamentary Coordination and Foreign Relations Committee on the "GCC-European Parliamentary Committee" were also approved, which suggested the deployment of a secretariat-general to coordinate with the presidency to ensure the continuity of mutual visits and arrange a meeting via video conferencing or on the sidelines of IPU meetings.