EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed

Image credit: EU/Twitter

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrived in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for an official visit. She met with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi, as per state news agency WAM.

The meeting looked at various aspects of UAE-EU relationship as well as future opportunities for collaboration.

The two also spoke about the upcoming COP28 climate conference, to be hosted by the UAE later this year, WAM reported.

Ursula von der Leyen wrote about the meet on her Twitter account, and said, “We both want to make COP28 a success and I look forward to our continued cooperation. We will work across the board to reinforce UAE-EU relations.”

Thank you President @MohamedBinZayed for the excellent exchanges today.

We both want to make COP28 a success and I look forward to our continued cooperation.

We will work across the board to reinforce UAE-EU relations. pic.twitter.com/0gIJPl1WE3

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 7, 2023

Sheikh Mohamed and von der Leyen reiterated the importance of strengthening international collaboration to find effective solutions to shared global challenges, including advancing climate action efforts, realising sustainable development objectives, and fostering economic prosperity—all of which contribute to shaping a brighter future for humanity.

UAE – EU relations

The EU acknowledges UAE’s  increasingly active on the regional and global scene. It calls the country “a solid and reliable partner for the bloc in several fields, notably within trade, but also in areas such as counterterrorism, energy, environment, climate change, non-proliferation and economic diversification.”

Cooperation between the bloc and the UAE has intensified in the field of energy and climate change in the past decade with an increased focus on renewables and a post-oil sustainable future.

Cooperation includes areas such as nationally determined contributions, hydrogen and climate financing. These are expected to further consolidate the UAE’s position as it gears up to host COP28.

Bilateral trade

The UAE is an increasingly important economic partner for the EU. The country is the EU’s first export destination and investment partner in the MENA region, according to Europa.eu. The UAE also serves as an important regional trade and logistics hub for European operators.

The volume of bilateral trade in 2022 reached EUR49bn, which represents a 27 per cent increase on annual basis, making the EU the second-largest trade partner of the UAE after China. Combined bilateral FDI stocks increased to EUR277bn in 2021 (latest available figure), which makes the EU the largest investor in the UAE by a significant margin.

The successful efforts by the UAE to diversify its economy from oil and to develop other productive sectors offers new opportunities for EU-UAE bilateral trade and investment cooperation in areas such as digitalisation, advanced technologies, renewable energy and energy efficiency, healthcare, education, sustainable economic transition, space technologies and food security.

Additionally, the bloc launched the “EU-GCC Dialogue on Economic Diversification Project” in 2018, to exchange best practices supporting the process of economic diversification in the Gulf, including the UAE.

Also read: Masdar, Iberdrola to invest in Germany’s $1.8bn Baltic Eagle wind farm