Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-19-Speech-2-008"
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"en.20070619.4.2-008"2
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"Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we have all been deeply moved and disturbed by the terrible events and tragic occurrences in the Gaza Strip over the last few days. As you know, I chose to make the Middle East the destination for my first official trip outside the European Union and visited the region. My meeting with Mr Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, was originally scheduled to take place in Ramallah, but, because of increasing hostilities between Fatah and Hamas, he asked me to visit him at his official residence in Gaza, where he was trying to mediate between the opposing factions, and that is what I did. It was exactly three weeks ago that I was having talks with President Abbas in Gaza, when I was impressed by the calm determination with which he explained his convictions to me, yet, once outside his official apartments, I could feel the tension in the air.
It has to be said, though, that there can be no peace without Israel, which bears a great responsibility. When I paid a visit there – and especially when I addressed the Knesset – I made it quite clear that the European Parliament was and is calling on those in positions of political power in Israel to express their firm support for President Abbas.
With that in mind, I would like, now, to reiterate my call for Israel to release to President Abbas the Palestinian customs duties and taxes – amounting to some USD 800 million – that it has been withholding for several months now. The Israeli Government has declared itself willing to do that, and should now actually do so with the minimum possible delay. The European Union must be an honest broker, and I see the European Parliament’s role as being to play a responsible part in this.
The peoples of Israel and Palestine are equal in dignity; they are entitled to live within secure borders. May the day come when Palestinians can live at peace with Palestinians and Palestinians with Israelis; a policy of reconciliation and mutual understanding along these lines may, today, appear to be a long way in the distance, but we in this House, being the representatives of the people of Europe, must support it as a matter of conviction and out of a sense of our own responsibility.
My recommendation to you, Members of this House, is that you condemn the Hamas militias’ violent attacks on the legitimate security forces and the institutions of the Palestinian Authority in the strongest terms, and it is out of the deepest conviction that I recommend that you express our support for President Abbas and our solidarity with him.
We support the Palestinian President’s decision to announce a state of emergency and appoint an emergency government in order to be able to resolve as soon as possible the political crisis in the Palestinian territories. The new prime minister, Mr Salam Fayyad, recently visited me in Brussels; we have great confidence in him and in his leadership qualities, and, should you mandate me to do so, I shall say so to him today.
The new government has a difficult task; it will need active assistance from the European Union and from the international community, and I should like to say, following on from the conclusions adopted at yesterday’s Council of Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg, that we in this House should act on our deepest convictions in supporting, in word and in deed, those who seek peace in the Middle East and are continuing to work for it.
Yesterday, at the opening of our plenary session, this House decided to defer voting on a resolution on the European Union’s Middle East policy until the July plenary sitting, and, given the continuing instability and the constantly changing situation in the region, I do believe that was the right decision to take.
That does not mean, however, that we have any intention of being passive observers of what is happening. The European Union – and that means this House too – must be in the advance guard of those working for a renewed relationship with the Palestinian people and those responsible for representing it.
We must shoulder our responsibility and act accordingly, doing everything in our power to get conditions throughout the Palestinian territories restored to those worthy of human beings; while we must support those who live there in meeting their most pressing human needs, we must also help to give them a real and long-term political perspective.
Yesterday’s Council of Foreign Ministers resolved to restore normal relations with the Palestinian Authority, and this is something we should welcome, together with the related decision to create the conditions needed in order to facilitate the resumption of efficient and transparent direct financial assistance and help with the development of functioning institutions. The mission under the Common Foreign and Security Policy, together with the police cooperation mission, are remaining in place, and, as a decision-making part of the EU’s budgetary authority, this House should firmly support that decision.
As well as taking these steps, though, we in this House should call on the Palestinians to return to the path of dialogue in order to achieve the reconciliation that is needed before there can be a Palestinian state covering the Palestinian territories as a whole. It cannot be in anyone’s interest that the civil war should become more widespread or go on for any longer."@en1
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The resource appears as object in one triple:
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