SPAIN’S INCOMING presidency of the EU has pledged to push for the establishment next year of an independent Palestinian state.
Setting out Spain’s programme for its presidency, foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos said the presidency will intensify efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process when its six-month mandate starts in the new year.
Spain believes a two-state settlement embracing the creation of a Palestinian state could be attained next year “and we are going to work for that”, Mr Moratinos said.
“We need a Palestinian state, the sooner the better. This is going to be our objective, our vision.”
While he could not guarantee the outcome, Mr Moratinos said “we will fight for getting that objective to be a reality”.
His remarks came days after EU foreign ministers called for a swift resumption of the peace talks and said a way must be found for Jerusalem to become the future capital of both states.
The EU will encourage Israel and the Palestinians to resume negotiations, Mr Moratinos said, adding that the union will support US efforts to facilitate a deal and will deploy its own diplomatic resources to that end.
Addressing reporters in Brussels, he said Spain recognised the primacy of incoming European Council president Herman Van Rompuy and the union’s new foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and will not be in competition with them.
While this means Spanish prime minister José Luis Zapatero will have a much lower profile than his predecessors in the union’s rotating presidency, Mr Moratinos said Spain will work with Mr Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton in a spirit of co-ordination and support.
In the Middle East engagement, he said, Spain’s foreign ministry would be “at the service” of Baroness Ashton. “I’m there to help,” he said.
Mr Moratinos identified four top priorities for Spain: implementing in full of the newly enacted Lisbon Treaty; promoting economic recovery; reinforcing the EU’s influence in world affairs; and taking initiatives to develop the rights and freedoms of EU citizens.
On the Lisbon Treaty, he said the presidency aimed to have arrangements in place next April to formally establish the Union’s new External Action Service, as its diplomatic corps will be known.
On the EU2020 medium-term economic strategy which member states and the European Commission hope to adopt next year, he said Spain will push for the inclusion in the plan of “binding mechanisms” to ensure that governments follow policy recommendations.
EU leaders will hold a special summit in February to discuss a plan to succeed the Lisbon Strategy, an ambitious programme noted for missed targets.
Mr Moratinos said the lesson from the Lisbon Strategy was that “we needed to have much more binding influence” over governments in respect of recommendations. However, he said it was for EU leaders to decide if they wanted such mechanisms and on their calibre.
Spain wants the EU to endorse plans to create a European gender-based violence monitoring centre. It is also proposing to create European protection orders, a means of extending measures adopted in one state to the entire union.
In addition, the presidency plans to initiate the process for the EU’s accession to the Convention on Human Rights.