Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-020"
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"en.20000905.2.2-020"2
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"Madam President, thank you very much indeed for arranging this very important debate at this particular time. I also wish to warmly welcome to our Parliament the Speaker of the Knesset, Mr Avraham Burg, and the President of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Mr Ahmed Qurie.
Like many people, I too, Madam President, was disappointed that the recent Middle East peace talks in Camp David did not culminate in a peace settlement between the Palestinians and the Israeli Government. However, I do not believe that these peace talks were a complete failure either. We should fully recognise that the Palestinians and the Israeli Government are now negotiating on bottom line issues, including the status of Jerusalem, the borders of the Palestinian State, the fate of Jewish settlements and the right of return of Palestinian refugees. I very much hope that the Middle East will resume peace talks in the near future.
I appeal to the key parties involved to strive in good faith to lay down a negotiated settlement based on existing agreements. Permanent status negotiations resumed in September 1999. It was always going to take time to tease through what were very difficult, delicate and sensitive political matters. EU Heads of State have affirmed on a number of occasions that the security of the Israeli and Palestinian people both collectively and individually must always be protected. I support the principle of exchanging land for peace and the continuing and unqualified Palestinian right to self-determination. I believe that the best way to address this latter issue is through negotiation.
I am calling on the Israeli Government and the Palestinian leadership to take the necessary steps to re-establish mutual confidence, accept the need to make concessions and focus on the overriding goal of achieving lasting peace and stability in the region. The peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians are not the only matter up for discussion within the Middle East. It is important that negotiations between Israel and Syria should resume quickly and that the Lebanese track of the Middle East peace process should also be addressed.
In this latter regard, I welcome the fact that since the Israeli forces left southern Lebanon, the region has been very peaceful. There has been peaceful progress on the Lebanese-Israeli border since the Lebanese Government gained authority within the region, and we all must certainly welcome the fact that southern Lebanon is now at peace. In the overall context, securing peace in the Middle East is always going to take time. The first step in the current peace process was taken when Israel and Egypt concluded the Camp David peace treaty in 1979. It took another twelve years before a comprehensive peace process got under way with the Madrid conference, which enshrined the land for peace principle. We can all take solace from the fact that the key protagonists in this difficult political equation are now addressing the most vexed and thorny bottom line issues that have to be resolved if a permanent peace agreement is to be put in place in the Middle East."@en1
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