Brussels - EU officials hope to play a 'constructive' role
in the Middle East peace process when they meet delegations from
Israel and the Palestinian territories in Lisbon on Monday.
The talks are due to take place just hours before a meeting of
foreign ministers from Europe and the Mediterranean area and several
weeks before a US-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood is
due to take place in Maryland.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who planned to send his foreign
minister Bernard Kouchner to the Portuguese capital on Monday, has
recently called on Israel and the Palestinians to 'take a risk' and
'make peace'.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited both Tel
Aviv and Ramallah this week and later said talks between Israelis and
Palestinians had entered 'a decisive phase'.
During his visit to the Middle East, Steinmeier unveiled a
German-initiated plan aimed at supporting Palestinian businesses,
education and security services.
He said the initiative was designed to allocate European aid
in a timely and organized manner.
The EU's executive, the Commission, has announced its intention of
resuming direct financial aid to the Palestinian government of
President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
But the plan, announced by EU External Relations Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Portugal two months ago, has yet to be put
into practice as the EU has yet to finish providing the necessary
training to Palestinian finance ministry officials.
Soldiers from Italy and France are leading peace-keeping
operations in southern Lebanon and Israel tends to view the EU as
traditionally pro-Arab.
Such feelings were likely to have been reinforced when Brussels
issued a number of statements criticizing Israel over its decision to
reduce the supply of fuel to Gaza.
'While condemning the unacceptable and continued attacks on
Israel's territory and recognizing Israel's legitimate right to self
defence, the EU underlines the need for carefully weighing the
negative impact of such measures on a civilian population already
living under very difficult conditions,' a statement from the
Portuguese presidency of the EU said.
Ferrero-Waldener had earlier described the move as a form of
'collective punishment' against the people of Gaza.
Palestinian Foreign and Information Minister Riyad Malki was
expected to represent the Palestinians at the talks in Lisbon, while
it was not yet confirmed whether Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
would be attending.
Malki said he planned to inform EU officials about 'the importance
of lifting the siege and sanctions on the Gaza Strip.'
'We will also talk about what the government did in the last 100
days in office, its efforts to enforce law and order, its finances
and economic reforms and we expect from the members all the support
we can get to help out in this period, financially and
economically,' Malki added.
The EU has been trying to play a constructive role in the Middle
East at least since 1995, when it set up a Euro-Mediterranean
Partnership at a meeting of foreign ministers in Barcelona, Spain.
The so-called 'Barcelona Process' seeks to establish a common area
of peace and stability while enhancing economic, social and cultural
cooperation between the EU and 10 Mediterranean Partners - Algeria,
Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority,
Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
EU officials in Brussels said that while no concrete results were
expected to emerge from the Lisbon meeting as far as the peace
process is concerned, the fact that the EU was providing traditional
enemies a forum in which to discuss issues of common interest was in
itself significant.
On Tuesday, EU ministers planned to discuss a variety of issues
with its colleagues from the Mediterranean. These include enhanced
economic cooperation, issues relating to migration and a code of
conduit on counter terrorism.
The meeting was also expected to offer EU ministers a first chance
to discuss Sarkozy's as yet undefined idea of creating a
Mediterranean Union.
Modelled on the EU, the Mediterranean Union would comprise 20
countries on the Mediterranean Sea. Among them Israel and Syria.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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