Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-10-06-Speech-3-049"
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"en.19991006.2.3-049"2
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"I am delighted at this early opportunity to which you refer to discuss this extremely important subject with you as members of a parliament which, after all, has taken a long and keen interest in the efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. You have chosen an opportune moment for this debate. Hopes for peace in the Middle East are higher now than they have been for many years. The election of a new and more constructive government in Israel and the signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum last month have set the stage for a relaunch of the peace process. There are clear signs too that both sides mean business. The first troop withdrawals, prisoner releases, and yesterday’s agreement on the opening of the safe passage route between Gaza and the West Bank, all show that both Israelis and Palestinians have begun again their efforts to reach a permanent peace. The permanent status negotiations have recently started once more. The differences are not to be underestimated. But with political will on both sides, they need not be unbridgeable. The European Union will do all it can to help the parties meet the February deadline for concluding an umbrella agreement. We also believe that the permanent agreement should be concluded within the target period of one year, as Minister Sasi said, as stipulated in the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum and as called for by the European Council in Berlin.
We will also continue discussion on these issues at the upcoming meeting of the ad hoc liaison committee for assistance to the Palestinians – the meeting in Tokyo – which is the international donor mechanism. We will press for the next meeting of this committee to be held in Portugal in line with the understanding reached at the Frankfurt meeting last February. I have every confidence that we shall succeed in that. In view of our major share of total assistance to the Palestinians of over 50%, most future donor coordination meetings should, in our judgement, be held within the Union, co-chaired by the European Union Member State hosting the meeting.
I am happy to report that the tenth convention between the Community and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was signed last week. The Commission has already initiated the first payments under the new convention. This will allow us to help deal with UNRWA’s severe cash shortfall and to continue our crucial support to the Palestinian refugees.
Let me also express my gratitude to the Committee on Development and Cooperation, and indeed to the whole Parliament, for the very thorough report and for your support, in the framework of the consultation procedure, for the Commission’s efforts in finalising the convention. I would like to pay particular tribute to the rapporteur, Ms Morgantini. Let me also thank the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, as well as the Committee on Budgets, for their support for the convention.
I have given you a summary of the efforts we are making with the presidency to help bring peace at last to the Middle East. We look to the parties to carry out in actions what they have put their names to on paper. In exchange, Europe will continue to play its full part in the peace process. But let me also stress that we intend to continue working closely with the United States, not as competitors, but as partners, in this matter. We recognise the crucial role of the United States, which has wrestled for so long and with such tenacity to bring peace to this troubled region; and I pay warm tribute to those efforts – for example, to the negotiating skill and determination of the Secretary of State.
It was Yitzak Rabin who famously remarked that you do not make peace with your friends. No-one underestimates the scale of the challenges ahead: peace will not come tomorrow. But peace will come – of that I am sure; with time and with patience, allied in equal measure to the will of the parties to achieve it and the will of outsiders to help bring it about. We have today a new chance for peace in the Middle East. Our task is to do all we can as Europeans to give that peace a chance and to hasten the day of its arrival. That is what we, with your active support and encouragement, intend to do.
So what can we in Europe do to stand by the peacemakers? It is right that we should match their renewed political commitment to move forward with practical support from the European Union. That, as the Presidency has just made clear, is what the Union collectively is doing. President Ahtisaari is in the Middle East, a point made by the Presidency, Ambassador Moratinos has been accompanying him and will I know continue to work hard to maximise the European Union’s contribution in the coming vital months.
We are also pressing ahead with the implementation of projects such as the construction of the Gaza seaport and the safe passages between the West Bank and Gaza: projects which are invested with political and social as well as with economic importance. We are also hoping for an early relaunch of the Syrian and Lebanese negotiating tracks, and will continue to assist the parties with a view to early resumption of these crucial talks.
But peace in the Middle East has a broader dimension – it extends wider than the talks between Israel and the Palestinians, central though they are. That is why we are keen to revitalise the multilateral talks and regional cooperation. The Presidency and the Commission have renewed their call for a monitoring committee meeting of the regional economic development working group to take place as soon as possible. This is, of course, chaired by the European Union. After three years of impasse, this would bring Israelis, Egyptians, Palestinians and Jordanians together again at official level.
We are taking other practical steps which are calibrated to the new political climate. The Commission has stepped up its planned support for regional cooperation projects between Israelis and Arabs. We will propose to Member States next month financing of more than EUR 20m for such projects. This package includes renewed assistance for people-to-people activities and cross-border cooperation where Israelis and Arabs meet on non-governmental and expert levels. The first generation of people-to-people projects, 17 of them in all, costing some EUR 5m, will start soon. Members will recall that the European Union, as the Presidency said, is the largest financial donor to the overall efforts in bringing reconciliation to the people of the Middle East.
Let me say a word about our assistance to the Palestinians, a subject in which this Parliament has taken an appropriate interest. In general, we look to both Israelis and Palestinians to improve their performance in removing obstacles that prevent international aid from achieving its goals. The Palestinians, for their part, need to persevere in the path of sound institution-building including, and I stress this point, budgetary transparency. In addition, Israel must find more effective ways of reconciling its legitimate security concerns with the urgent need for genuine Palestinian development.
We are pleased to have recently reached agreement on the update of the tripartite action plan. This plan, honourable Members will recall, details Israeli, Palestinian and international donor obligations in the framework of the assistance efforts to the Palestinian Authority. The improved political climate should, I hope, allow for more progress on these matters.
We have consistently pressed for the building of sound and accountable institutions in the Palestinian Authority. I am pleased to report, therefore, that President Arafat has endorsed the recently published report on strengthening Palestinian institutions, prepared by the independent task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations with substantial European Union assistance.
President Arafat has appointed several senior ministers to a special committee. They will meet the task force, including President Prodi, in Brussels next month to discuss the implementation of the report’s far-reaching recommendations."@en1
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