Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-26-Speech-3-095"
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"en.20060426.11.3-095"2
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".
Mr President, it has been said various times that this is certainly one of the most difficult challenges we have at this moment in foreign policy. I thank the majority of Members that have given us support in this very difficult situation.
Why do we not just give funds to the Hamas-led government? We have been very clear on that. There are certain principles that even every democratic government also has to maintain. That is absolutely clear for every democratically elected government, it should be clear and we have clearly outlined it. I would like to repeat that we have not stopped aid to the Palestinian people, as some have said. On the contrary, we have accelerated our aid by already giving more than EUR 100 million at the very beginning of this year. At the same time last year, we had not even given one fifth of that, as I mentioned very clearly. It is just a matter of listening to what we are saying. It is true that we have to make this aid very visible to the Palestinian people. They have to know we have not let them down, but at the same time it is very clear that we cannot give direct aid to a government that is not responding to this very clear demand on the principles.
However, regarding the second question, it is also true that we will indeed also want to support Mahmoud Abbas in a very cautious way because we do not want to undermine his position. However, at the same time we want to find ways and means of providing an opportunity for the help to go on, and that is why I also mentioned that we need an international supervisory mechanism to ensure that any financial contribution really goes to the right places. We are already working with the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank and other big donors in order to see how we can set up such a mechanism. Of course we have to do it rather quickly, and this also goes for health, education and other issues.
Are we applying double standards? As our Council Presidency said, we are applying the same criteria that we have applied. We have always mentioned very clearly to the Israelis that they too have quite a number of obligations. In addition, in September 2005, for instance, the Quartet expressed very clearly its concern that settlement expansion must stop and Israel must remove unauthorised outposts. It also pointed out that we continue to note with concern the route of the Israeli separation barrier, particularly as it results in the confiscation of Palestinian land, cuts off the movement of people and goods and thus also undermines Palestinian trust in the roadmap.
I think we could have not been clearer, but what we want to see now is the new Israeli Government engaging with the Palestinian Authority. Here, President Mahmoud Abbas has shown his readiness.
For the time being we cannot do anything else but clearly follow this line. I hope that also, from the side of the Hamas-led Government, they understand our messages. We will want to give them a little bit more time, but they should now also be more flexible in their positions, because then there is also a chance to work with a government that wants peace by peaceful means."@en1
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