No EU Aid to Palestine
February 12, 2007
"The EU stands ready to work with a legitimate Palestinian government that adopts a platform reflecting the Quartet principles," the ministers said in a statement agreed Monday in Brussels.
Earlier in the day EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the European Union was not yet ready to resume aid to the Palestinian government despite the unity accord signed last week in Mecca by the Hamas and Fatah factions.
The process of forming a government "has not been completed," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
"We have to wait for the formation of a government and its program," Steinmeier told a press conference after the foreign ministers' meeting.
He did welcome the agreement between Hamas and Fatah, which he said should help stop the inter-Palestinian "blood bath."
He also hailed the "redynamised" Quartet talks. The Mideast Quartet -- EU, UN, US and Russia -- is due to meet in Berlin on Feb. 21, their second meeting this month.
EU: new government not enough
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who is to head a new unity government, urged the four sponsors of the stalled Middle East peace process Monday to stop boycotting the Palestinian cabinet.
"We speak to the European Union and the Quartet to ask them to respect the will of the Palestinians and their agreement, and to lift the blockade suffered by the Palestinian people for long months," Haniya said in a televised address.
Israel praised the EU's reaffirmed commitment to upholding the economic boycott that has been imposed on the Palestinian government since the rise to power of the Islamist movement Hamas last March.
"I think we all agree we are not there yet," Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told the AFP news agency. "It is incumbent upon an incoming Palestinian government to accept all three of the benchmarks articulated by the Quartet."
Some help still gets through
Though the EU ceased direct aid to the Palestinian government nearly a year ago, refusing to deal with the Hamas-led administration, the European bloc subsequently set up a temporary mechanism for funneling aid to the Palestinian people, who face an economic crisis, while side-stepping the government.
The interim system allows for hospitals to be provided with equipment and fuel and for aid payments to be made to the poorest Palestinians.
Last year the system provided 700 million euros ($900 million) in aid to the Palestinian people, more than the annual amount the bloc gave to the Palestinian government before Hamas assumed power, said Ferrero-Waldner.