Strasbourg, 22/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - On the opening of the plenary session, in Strasbourg on Monday, the German Green, elected in France, Daniel Cohn-Bendit strongly criticised the Conference of Presidents for having "diluted" the political message of the award of the Sakharov Prize to a Palestinian and an Israeli by also awarding it to an Angolan Bishop (see EUROPE of 19 October, p.7). He said he could not understand how "Mr. Poettering could call Mr. Baron" and thus change a decision taken by the majority of the Foreign Affairs Committee following a lengthy debate. Messrs. Poettering and Baron answered that this decision had been respected as the prize had been awarded to the candidates selected by the parliamentary Committee, and Mr. Baron added that the position of the Conference of Presidents had the merit of demonstrating that it was not a question of a war of religion. Mr. Cohn-Bendit replied that by giving the prize to a Muslim and a Jew they were already rejecting any war of religion and that it was not necessary to add a Catholic. The President of the GUE/NGL Group, France's Francis Wurtz considered it important to have awarded the prize to a Palestinian and an Israeli, and called on the President of the EP to write to Ariel Sharon to ask him to immediately withdraw his tanks from the Palestinian Territories. Nicole Fontaine answered positively to that request.