The EU-Arab World Summit

The European Union and Arab world have throughout the years been sharing a destiny of geographical proximity, economic and political cooperation on many fronts. The two major worlds have a long history of cross-fertilization and human and cultural exchanges that had shaped their heritage and shared history and values. However, a legacy of conflicts and misunderstandings has in many instances affected both worlds’ ability to leverage this natural complementarity in order to establish strategic partnerships and create a global Euro-Arab zone of stability and prosperity.

Both the European Union and the Arab world shoulder a historical responsibility to overcome all hindrances, real and imagined, and work hard on cementing a global partnership that could easily create one of the significant zones of political and economic cooperation in the world. Euro-Arab cooperation will be instrumental in strengthening Europe’s global political and economic standing while helping the Arab region to overcome and resolve its challenges, and lay the foundation for industry and knowledge-driven economic development that would eventually supersede the region’s chronic dependency on oil and gas.

On the initiative of the Greek government, the EU-Arab World Summit was held on 9-10 November 2017 in Athens, Greece, with view of providing the most representative and dynamic platform for debating strategies of Euro-Arab cooperation and partnership between the two major economic and political blocs.

Summit was fully occupied by prominent personalities of the Arab states and the European Union. Many participants were from the business sphere. Summit addressed the possibility of obedient relations between the Arab and European markets. Our Arab – The Slovak Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture take part in this event with part of the business membership. We presented the possibilities of production and supply of various possible products and we mainly presented the possibilities of the Slovak market. It was very interested in the fact that the EU participants were informed about the possibilities of placing on the Arab market.