Brussels, 31/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - A few days before the visit to Brussels by the Israeli Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, next 6 June, the President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat met, this Thursday evening in Brussels, with the European Commission President Romano Prodi, Commissioner Chris Patten and the High Representative for CFSP Javier Solana, following a true diplomatic marathon that brought him to meet other European political leaders and figures, notably the acting European Council President Goran Persson, his successor Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine (and the Russian President Vladimir Putin). A financing agreement on the Community budgetary aid to the Palestinian Authority was signed in the evening by Mr Patten and Mr Nabeel Shaath, Minister responsible for planning and international cooperation.
A little before receiving the Palestinian leader, Mr Prodi had detailed his intentions, via the spokesperson: 1) reaffirm the full support of the Union to the recommendations made by the Mitchell Commission and the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative; 2) call on Mr Arafat to do his utmost for violence to end, notably by exercising control over the radical forces within Palestinian society and by working toward preventing terrorist acts and incitements; 3) confirm the EU position according to which the Israeli settlements in the territories are illegal and the economic blockade of the Palestinian territories must be lifted. A few days earlier, in Copenhagen, Mr Arafat made a plea for the urgent sending of observers to the region, a call which the Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen echoed. Prudent, the acting President of the European Council, refused to make any comment and preferred to publicly insist over the need to stop violence and the desire to see the Union deploy significant political force in the region.
Another step in the visit by Mr Arafat to Brussels, was the signing of a financing agreement through which the Union undertakes to directly provide the Palestinian Authority with an aid of EUR 60 million to support a policy of budgetary austerity. This aid, which will be paid each month, in six instalments, comes in addition to the EUR 57.5 million already advanced as reimbursable loans in December of last year and in January of this year. The Commission contribution is part of the framework of a larger effort by the international donor community aiming to support the Authority and the Palestinian population in these difficult current circumstances, added the spokesperson. Mr Arafat and the Commission members also carried out an inventory of the measures needed to improve financial management, transparency and the effective implementation of the austerity budget, including reforms of payroll management and pension systems, Mr Prodi and Mr Patten placed emphasis on the continuation of reforms within the Palestinian institutions and called for the imminent signing of the Palestinian law on the independence of the judiciary.
The same day, the Palestinians deplored the loss of Faycal Husseini, eminent figure in the PLO, who died that morning from a heart attack. One of the main partners of Mr Arafat and one of the most active partisans for peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence until the violence over recent months, Mr Husseini should have participated in Kuwait in a seminar concerning the freeze of the normalisation of relations with Israel.