On Thursday 19 December, the heads of state or government of the European Union countries reiterated their calls for an end to hostilities, the unconditional release of all Israeli hostages and the urgent improvement of access and large-scale distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
They also reaffirmed their support for the Lebanese and UN institutions, UNIFIL and UNRWA, in line with their October meeting (see EUROPE 13506/2).
In view of recent developments, the leaders welcomed the ceasefire agreement reached in November between Israel and Lebanon (see EUROPE 13535/14) and urged the parties to implement it, praising in particular “the mediation efforts undertaken by France and the United States”.
Having been approved the day before by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper), the European Council’s conclusions were not substantially amended. The leaders stuck to the language prepared in advance of the summit (see EUROPE 13548/3).
Several of them, including the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, reaffirmed to the press the need to implement a two-state solution.
‘We have once again demanded that the European Union play a much more active, determined and local role in the two-state solution”, stressed Mr Sánchez on Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, the Irish Prime Minister, Simon Harris, came back to Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Dublin on Sunday, prompted by initiatives it deemed “anti-Israeli”.
“The Irish people and government are not anti-Israel. We are pro-human rights, pro-international law, pro-peace, and we will never be intimidated or silenced into moving away from that”,said Mr Harris on his arrival at the summit, calling in particular for a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (see EUROPE 13546/2).
“Anyone who has known Ireland or Irish foreign policy for any length of time will know that these are the values that underpin it, and I refuse to respond to the highly personalised and downright false claims of the Israeli Government, which are designed to deflect attention. Ask me about this rather than the fact that tens of thousands of children have lost their lives”, he added.
To see the conclusions of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/ewi (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit, with the editorial staff)