Brussels, 17/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament's political groups, that will be deciding on the winner of the Sakharov Prize on Thursday, the German national elected as a French Green MEP, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, expressed concerns about a probable U-turn and called for the Foreign Affairs Committee's choice of two leading candidates to be respected.
In a press release, Mr Cohn-Bendit said that he did not want to denigrate either of the other candidates (Tunisian journalist Ms Ben Sedrine, editor and spokesperson of the Conseil National des Libertés; and Don Zacarias Kamuenho, Archbishop of Lubango in Angola, who is active in the peace process), noting that Ms Ben Sedrine needed strong support from abroad, but that any challenge to the Foreign Affairs Committee's choice would be interpreted by Parliament as a putsch. The Committee vote gave clear, unequivocal support to the Israeli Nurit Peled-Elhalan and the Palestinian Izzat Ghazzawi, both activists in the peace process. This choice does not simply reflect the two candidates' life histories, but also a desire by Parliament to stimulate the relaunch of the Middle East Peace Process, he added, saying that if the group presidents managed to overturn this choice, the vote on the Sakharov Prize would have to be sent to the Parliament plenary session.