Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-05-09-Speech-3-092"
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"en.20070509.13.3-092"2
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".
Mr President, my colleague and friend Mr Rocard will forgive me if I start by addressing a very important topic, one on which Mrs De Keyser has been working very intensively in recent months and years: that of the Palestinian territories. I do not believe that we can make progress without a change in EU policy on the Palestinian issue or with regard to many of Mr Rocard’s justified demands.
Today, my group decided unanimously to call on the Commission and the Council to make fundamental changes to their policy on the Palestinian territories. EU policy – championed by the Council and the Commission – is untenable, cynical and unacceptable to the Arab population. Some governments may consider it acceptable, but the population of the Arab countries cannot approve of our current policy towards the Palestinian Government.
We called for free elections; and free, fair elections took place – to which Mrs De Keyser is the chief witness – but then we said we could not accept the result. This is most undemocratic. We then said that the Palestinians should at least form a unity government; and a unity government has been formed. We also told them to make a clear commitment to the peace process and the 1967 borders. The present Palestinian Government has declared its commitment to those borders. Israel has not, but we do not seem to consider this a problem.
Many of our officials still refuse to receive the Palestinian Foreign Minister, for example, as the Council President did recently. It is unacceptable for the Council President, Angela Merkel, to say that she will receive the Israeli Foreign Minister but that it is beneath her to welcome the Palestinian Foreign Minister, who has nothing to do with Hamas.
Therefore, in view of the specific situation in the Palestinian territories, we demand a drastic change in the position of the Council and the Commission. Perhaps individual members of the Council and the Commission disagree with it, but as institutions their policy is wrong and cynical. Do the ladies and gentlemen know the situation in the Palestinian territories? Do they know that our policy is resulting in the territories descending into chaos, that Mafia groups are taking power there? Do they know that a continuation of this policy is the best way of contributing to Israel’s insecurity?
We must arrive at a different position, therefore – particularly in connection with this report, but also in connection with Israel’s security, which is closely linked to the security of the Arab countries and of Europe. We should do so by attempting genuine cooperation with the Palestinian Government – a government chosen by the elections demanded by us – if that government is at least as prepared as Israel to support the peace process. I wanted to say this at the start of the debate on what is a very good report, but risks being unrealisable unless we change our policy on the Palestinian territories and towards the Palestinian Government."@en1
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