Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-26-Speech-3-075"
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"en.20060426.11.3-075"2
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".
Mr President, President-in-Office, the election victory of Hamas in January presented the European Union with a totally new situation. We supported the Palestinian elections and we also, I have to say, respect the outcome. But the heart of the matter is indeed the emergence of a Palestinian Authority whose government is led by members of an organisation included in the EU terrorist list, and that continues to this day to attempt also to justify, for instance, suicide bombings in Israel.
In January, the Council and the Quartet set out clear principles – that have just been mentioned again – for continued engagement with the Palestinian Authority. I am the first to regret that the new government has so far refused to renounce violence, recognise the right of Israel to exist and accept existing agreements. These principles are indeed the expression of a commitment to work, as we said, for peace by peaceful means. They are not new: they have underpinned our cooperation with the Palestinians for many years. As a result, the Council, meeting two weeks ago as was just mentioned, endorsed the decision of the Commission to temporarily put on hold assistance to or through the Palestinian Government and its ministries.
The Commission’s action is a precautionary measure taken to ensure that no Community funds pass into the hands of Hamas. We have taken it pending the possible evolution of the Palestinian Authority position and a definitive decision by the Council on relations with the Palestinian Authority. It is not a definite decision: we are currently reviewing our projects involving payments to or through the Palestinian Authority to see whether we can find alternative solutions. My services have already held a meeting for instance with the office of President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss implementing some of those projects, for instance through the office of the President.
I want to make very clear what this means. We have suspended payments going, as was said, to the Palestinian Government, but we have not suspended aid to the Palestinian people. On the contrary, since the beginning of this year, we have stepped up our aid to the Palestinians. On 27 February, I announced a EUR 120 million package of aid, including help for refugees and help with fuel bills. This means that we committed almost half of our normal year’s budget in only two months. EUR 100 million of this has already been paid: five times more than we paid for the same period in 2005.
This represents an acceleration of our aid to the Palestinian people, not a suspension of aid to the people. The Commission is all too aware that the economic, social and humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories is unfortunately getting worse. I have seen the reports from the visits that some Members made to the region in the last few days, and I know you share our deep concern. We will also come forward with further measures to help the population, but we must also be clear on one point: the key to preventing a humanitarian disaster in the Palestinian territories lies with Israel and the Palestinian Authority, not with the international community.
I have heard some people say that Europe has been paying the salaries of the Palestinian Authority. This is just not true. Our support to the Palestinian Authority budget in the past has been linked to reform. At most it has covered less than 10% of the salary bill. The real question is that of Israel withholding Palestinian customs and tax revenues. These are Palestinian taxes which people have already paid. Withholding them means that basic services will not be delivered, salaries cannot be paid and families will suffer.
Israel has also increased the closures of territory in the West Bank and into and out of Gaza. Addressing these problems will do more to help the Palestinian people than any measure the EU can take. All of us in the international community have to intensify our diplomatic efforts with Israel on these two issues.
On the Palestinian side, President Abbas has indeed a key role to play, including in negotiating with Israel. We are looking at how we might best support his Office, but we are not in the business of parallel structures. Rather, we are looking with other donors at the possibility of establishing an international supervision mechanism that could facilitate the control of funds for donors to meet needs, for instance in the health and education sectors. The Quartet meeting on 9 May is an opportunity for the international community to address this question, as well as measures Israel could take to ease the humanitarian situation.
I wish to conclude by stressing our wish to see an evolution of the positions taken by the Government of the Palestinian Authority, not its failure. In this way we are looking to address the contradiction between the positions currently espoused by members of the new Palestinian Government and by Hamas as an organisation and the EU objective of a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Israel living side-by-side and at peace with a future Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders."@en1
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