Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-06-Speech-3-102"
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"en.20070606.13.3-102"2
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".
Mr President, I am not going to repeat what I and others who have contributed to the debate have already said.
I would first of all like to thank all the Members of Parliament who contributed, those who are still here and those who have left. I think it has been a very interesting debate, and I would like to make an observation on it. When I come to the European Parliament to discuss the Middle East, I have the feeling that emotions run high, starting with my own. But I think that our debates have to be about the events which are important at a given time.
Today we are in a very difficult situation, but at the same time, as has been said, it is a time of hope, which did not exist for a long time. I have been involved in the Middle East for many years. I was at the Madrid Conference and at the last Conference at Camp David. Not since Camp David have I perceived us to be any closer than I feel we are today to the beginning of real, meaningful communication and exchange and therefore the beginning of a political horizon, and a debate and negotiations about that. There are three reasons for this.
One is that the Arab League Initiative is something that was missing at the time of Camp David. We have it today, and we have the engagement of the Arabs to embrace whoever the Palestinian negotiator is going to be, in order to sustain him and to give the support which, as you know, was not there at the time of Camp David.
Secondly, 40 years have elapsed. I think everybody is exhausted: psychologically, physically and politically. Out of this exhaustion I think that we have to muster new psychological and political energy in order to move forward.
Thirdly, we have a mechanism – the Quartet – and sometimes we do not realise how much effort goes into that. For the first time we have the United States and the European Union at the same table negotiating with the parties, which has never happened before. We have to recognise that. This is the first time that the European Union has been at the negotiating table. The Russian Federation was in Madrid and then disappeared. There was also the Secretary-General of the United Nations – imagine for a moment what that means – the United Nations negotiated in this conflict. It was impossible to imagine at that time.
I believe that to a certain extent all these elements change the horizon of what can be done now. We must now try to move on, try not to falter and try to continue working in that direction. Conditions have changed and therefore we have more hope that it can be achieved. Will it be achieved in 24 hours? No. If you think that we will find the solution to all the problems by the end of this month, you are wrong: we will have to wait a bit longer than that. But let us see whether we have the opportunity to move the process forward.
As a final thought, I would like to stress that we are Europeans here. Everyone here is a member of the European Union. Sometimes we have to be a little proud of what we do. If you go to Palestine, as you do, you hear the criticism. But probably, if you really talk in depth to the Palestinians and Israelis, you will find a growing sympathy and understanding – you have to agree with me about that – for the way in which Europeans are doing things. I think that we Europeans have to recognise that every now and then. Otherwise we will never move forward collectively, as we need to do.
Moving this process forward is not an effort for one or two: it is an effort for everybody. We have an opportunity. Let us see whether next time we meet we see progress. We will not see the solution, but let us see whether we make progress."@en1
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