Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-04-Speech-2-022"
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"en.20010904.2.2-022"2
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". – Madam President, the Minister has set out with great clarity and comprehensiveness the situation in the Middle East at the moment and, as the Minister has said and everyone in Parliament knows, the situation in the region has gone from bad to worse and threatens to become worse still.
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why anybody should suppose that further impoverishment of the Palestinian territories and increased employment among young Palestinians can have anything to do with the restoration of security. I am sure that we all took away rewarding reading matter during our summer break. I spent a good deal of my summer reading about the 1930s and about the relationship between economic impoverishment, economic hardship and political extremism in country after country. We must go on reiterating the point that trying to do so much damage, putting such a tough squeeze on the Palestinian territories, is not to restore security or the way to lay the foundations for a future in which both parties can live happily and amicably together.
Third-party monitoring of the proper implementation of those agreements and a functioning dispute settlement mechanism would obviously help to address Palestinian frustration with the current non-implementation of existing agreements. All this would help to bring about a revival of the Palestinian economy, give Palestinians a stake in their own futures and improve the prospects for a better future to be achieved by political negotiations. These efforts need to be supported by a range of confidence-building measures to overcome the current deep distrust, not only between the leading politicians, but also between the two peoples. This is an area in which Parliament has quite rightly taken a particularly strong interest. I want to remind Parliament that in the past two years alone the Commission has allocated about EUR 50 million to peace-building programmes fostering Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in particular. These programmes promote peace through joint projects and awareness campaigns for tolerance and peace.
We have an important role to play in supporting the voices of moderation wherever they exist. The sad fact is that the longer this dreadful situation continues the fewer moderates there are going to be, but they show considerable courage in their own communities and they deserve our continuing support.
The Commission stands ready to use all the instruments available to it to help alleviate the very severe financial difficulties facing the Palestinians. Our package of support for the Palestinian authority is a successful example of how the European Union can deliver assistance in a sensible, fast and effective manner and I am extremely grateful to Parliament for its support in our work.
European support for the Palestinian Authority budget is secured until November and the Arab states are currently considering extending their budgetary support until the end of the year. It is still too early for any concrete announcement regarding further Commission intervention. We have just reached mid-term in our current support operation and we are awaiting Palestinian compliance with a number of conditions to be followed by an evaluation and assessment of the pretty grim macroeconomic and fiscal outlook.
Palestinian needs in 2002, and the contributions of other donors will have to be looked at in the context of an assessment of the economic situation in the Palestinian territories currently being carried out by the World Bank. It is expected that this exercise will be concluded by the end of September. Once these data are available, the Commission will consider how best we can contribute further to international efforts. Of course, we will keep in the closest touch with Parliament about our assessment of the financial requirements of the Palestinian authority and about our continuing determination to ensure that even in the present appalling circumstances our financial assistance depends, as far as the Palestinian side is concerned, on transparency, proper budgetary prudence and a commitment on the Palestinian side to fight corruption. Those are all points that have all been made to us by Members of this House and they underlie our determination to secure a proper agreement between ourselves and the Palestinians before we started releasing money in budgetary support.
In the meantime, I can only repeat what the Minister said so ably a few moments ago. What is required is a recommitment to Mitchell as rapidly as possible. Unless we see that, the situation will get even worse, with considerable damage right across the region.
In considering what I should say this morning I was struck once again, by the difference between the strength of the adjectives and the nouns that we use to describe the situation and the strength of the verbs we use in trying to resolve it. It really is an intensely difficult problem.
The continuing violence – according to the news this morning there has been another suicide bombing in Jerusalem – and the endless recriminations and refusal of the parties to rise above their grievances and choose the path of peace is not only profoundly regrettable but also frustrating for everyone in the international community who is trying to find a way out of the current impasse.
Both parties, as the Minister said earlier, have failed to seize the opportunity offered by the recommendations of the Mitchell report, offered again in the Tenet plan. But again we come back to the point that there is no better basis for an end to the violence, for laying the foundations for a peaceful and prosperous future, than Mitchell. What is the alternative?
The alternative is more bloodshed, with an international dispute turned into a bitter feud and continuing collateral damage internationally, as we are seeing this week at the conference in Durban.
So what can the European Union do in these circumstances? The Minister has explained, very clearly the extremely important role the Presidency has been playing, trying to mobilise international opinion around proposals which offer a way forward. The Minister has also noted the efforts made by all the European Union foreign ministers and, of course, Javier Solana, who has been attempting to bring Israelis and Palestinians together and to get them to return to the negotiating table.
We obviously have to continue to urge all concerned to implement all and not just some of the recommendations of the Mitchell report immediately. We will go on doing that and delivering that message. We must also urge the parties to reduce the level of distrust which has been built up in recent months. They must reaffirm their commitment to the fundamental long-term goals of the Middle East peace process, secure borders for Israel through the negotiated establishment of a viable Palestinian state on the basis of the relevant UN resolutions.
Palestinian leaders must make clear day-by-day their unequivocal condemnation of and opposition to attacks on the innocent and violence in all its forms. It is sometimes suggested by critics that we in the European Union have not been sufficiently strong in our condemnation of terrorism. That is a grossly unfair criticism. For example, in its statement after the attack in Jerusalem on 9 August the Presidency unreservedly condemned the bombing of a Jerusalem shopping centre and it abhorred that cowardly attack, which mainly claimed the lives of innocent civilians. After the attack in Haifa on 12 August, the Presidency once again put out a statement condemning recent suicide bomb attacks in the strongest terms and pointing out that these attacks targeted at Israeli citizens are hateful and repugnant in the extreme.
So we have made clear our opposition to terrorism in all its manifestations, but if we are to stand a better chance of ending the cycle of violence and weakening the position of radical forces. Palestinians need to be able to see a real prospect of an improvement in their daily lives. This should include the implementation of existing agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. For a start, the lifting of the closures, the transfer of tax revenues, safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank, reopening of the airport and creating export facilities that will allow Palestinians to benefit from their agreements with the European Union and with other partners."@en1
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