Brussels, 26/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - Speaking about the international ministerial conference on the Middle East, which is to be held in Paris on 3 June, French S&D MEP Gilles Pargneaux said on Wednesday 25 May that “to be effective, the French initiative must not be French but European”.
“Only European action will provide us with the necessary legitimacy”, he said at a press conference at the European Parliament, adding that he had either already met, or would do, the president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, the secretary general of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Alain Le Roy, and French special envoy Pierre Vimont. “The EU today has a golden opportunity to interject itself in the process of reconciliation and to advance the process”, said Alon Ben-Meir, who works at New York University and has published a report to ensure the success of the French initiative to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Ben-Meir was also at the European Parliament press conference, and added that the USA could not do anything due to the upcoming presidential elections, although Pargneaux stated that the situation in the region made a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict an emergency.
Pargneaux and Ben-Meir said that the basis for the peace talks should be the Arab peace initiative of 2002. In their view, the Quartet (USA, Russia, UN and EU) should not lead the process but be integrated in the Arab peace initiative. The Quartet “must be put aside. It has never brought the people close together”, Ben-Meir stated, adding that the priority should be given to contact between the Israeli and Palestinian people. He also said that the leaders of both sides were an obstacle to peace. In his opinion, therefore, the French initiative should not ask the Israeli and Palestinian governments to sit down and negotiate, but ask them to show their commitment by taking measures on the ground. “If only the Israelis no longer saw the Palestinians as terrorists, but as human beings, and if only the Palestinians no longer saw the Israelis as soldiers with guns, but as human beings”, he said. “Co-existence is not an option”, Ben-Meir also stated. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)