EU Foreign Ministers Council: a timid response to the Middle East crisis
Commenting on the EU Foreign Ministers discussions in the framework of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) about the Middle East, ETUC General Secretary John Monks said: “I share the Council’s analysis as well as its ‘acute concern’ at the situation and in particular the deteriorating humanitarian situation and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in both Gaza and the Lebanon. I join with them in calling for the release of the abducted soldiers and an immediate cession of hostilities - more precisely, a cease-fire.
However, the European Union is not playing as full a part as it could in working towards a peaceful solution. The EU is Israel’s largest trade partner and shares a European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan with Israel with a high level of ambition.
The EU is also the largest donor to the Palestinians, and I welcome the latest disbursements to alleviate the conditions in Gaza announced yesterday. All this should ensure the EU’s influence on the parties. But divided views in the Council and the absence of the institutional presence that Javier Solana would have enjoyed had the Constitutional Treaty been in force, have led once more to a timid response.
This insistence on intergovernmentalism in foreign policy will also diminish Europe’s potential weight in the United Nations processes that must be the basis for a just solution”.
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