EU FOREIGN policy chief Catherine Ashton defended the union’s efforts to help break the deadlock in the Middle East peace process after 25 senior Europeans called for a more decisive stance on Israeli settlements.
In a letter to the European Council, co-ordinated by former EU commissioner Chris Patten and former French foreign minister Hubert Védrine, the group said the two-state solution will become increasingly difficult to attain without a rapid and dramatic move to halt the deterioration of conditions on the ground.
The letter said EU governments should “put a price tag” on Israeli policies which are held to prevent an agreement to end the conflict.
“The government of Israel continues to undertake unilateral measures on the ground that will prejudge the outcome, if not prevent the possibility of substantive negotiations on many of the final status issues,” it said.
The letter’s signatories – among them former president Mary Robinson and businessman Peter Sutherland, a former EU commissioner – included Ms Ashton’s predecessor Javier Solana.
Other signatories were former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Italian former commission leader Romano Prodi, former Spanish premier Felipe Gonzalez and former French prime minister Lionel Jospin.
They said an EU summit next week should set a date at which EU leaders will take further action to tackle the stalemate. “It could for example say that if there is no progress by its next meeting scheduled for April 2011, this will leave the council with no alternative but to refer the matter to the international community,” they said, in a reference to the United Nations.
In her response to the letter, Ms Ashton said the EU “will continue to be at the forefront of efforts to advance the peace process and engage with both the Palestinians and the Israelis to find a way to resolve the conflict”. She pointed out that she had visited Gaza twice in recent months.
The emergence of the letter to the council, dated December 2nd, comes as US mediator George Mitchell plans to return to the Middle East to meet Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the hope of salvaging the stalled talks.
EU foreign ministers will discuss the situation at their regular meeting on Monday. Ms Ashton expects a briefing this weekend from US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who has been in talks with both sides in recent days.