Luxembourg, 30/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Monday evening in Luxembourg, the President of the EU Council, Louis Michel, provided a balance sheet for what had proved, a "very busy day". He stressed the fact that Foreign Ministers had held a "very broad discussion" on the situation in the Middle-East and their very real worries regarding the worsening situation. German Foreign Affairs Minister, Joschka Fischer and his French counterpart, Hubert Védrine had declared earlier to journalists that Member States realised the necessity of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict definitively as rapidly as possible in order to shore up the international coalition against terrorism. Mr Védrine explained that, if there was no progress in the situation in the Middle-East, it was certainly going to put the coalition in jeopardy. Mr Michel reaffirmed the need to outline a political perspective by going beyond the "daily micro-management" of the situation and "baby-sitting", by increasing the visits of Ministers Solana and Patten in the field to effectively reduce, at least temporarily, tension in the area. In response to a question about the air strikes on Afghanistan and a possible change of strategy, Mr Michel asserted that it was too early, three weeks after the beginning of operation, to make an assessment but added that these operations remained within the framework of the response envisaged and there was, therefore, no reason to question the solidarity of the war against terrorism. He added that the coalition "had to remain solid" and that he was going to lead a mission to Central Asia to assess the situation in the region and open up humanitarian routes to Afghanistan. Mr Michel is expected to go to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan at the Head of a troika made up of High Representatives, Solana, Patten and Piqué. He is also due to stop-over in Moscow before heading back to Brussels. The Ministers held a brief exchange of views on Central Asia before expressing a favourable opinion on Mr Solana's document reassessing EU policy in the region (see yesterday's edition of EUROPE page 5).
In a declaration adopted by the Council at the 10th anniversary of the Conference of Madrid, the EU expressed its belief that it was necessary to stress its commitment to the peace process, painstakingly developed through negotiations and agreements between the different sides. It also declared that this process represented the only reasonable hope to bring an end to a conflict of which any continuation would inflame the suffering of innocent people. The Council added that the situation in the Middle-East was continually getting worse with the violence reaching a scale that had not been seen for years. Defiance, fear and resentment were having a radicalising effect and that the absence of any political perspective incited confrontation and encouraged extremism. The EU called Israelis and Palestinians to hold talks immediately and unconditionally, whilst there was still time for the path of negotiations on the basis of recommendations from the Michel Report and the Tenet Plan. The Council called on the Israeli authorities to withdraw their forces from the zone under Palestinian authority, immediately, (zone A) and called on the Palestinian Authority to do everything in its power to arrest the perpetrators of violence against Israel. The EU indicated that the search for global and lasting peace incorporate the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese aspects of the conflict. It also mentioned the need for a just and viable solution to the particularly complex questions concerning Jerusalem and refugees, as well as economic support for the Palestinian population. The EU reiterated that in strict collaboration with the USA and its other partners, it work towards the solving the conflict definitively.