Brussels, 07/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - After the debate on Iraq at the Security Council, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel wrote to the EU Council President, Georges Papandreou, asking him to convene a European Union Council meeting after presentation of the second Blix report (expected for 14 February). The meeting, he suggests, would be attended by foreign ministers of candidate countries (including Turkey) and also those of certain countries of the region. A press release specifies that Mr Michel is currently in contact with Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League, "whose reflection on the Iraqi issue could be associated to that of the European Union". On such a sensitive situation, the EU should be able to "take an initiative in its own name", Mr Michel states in the press release, in the hope that there would be a common approach on an issue where, in his view, Europe can make all the difference. (See EUROPE of 6 February, p.5, for remarks by Georges Papandreou on the possibility of a joint EU/Arab States initiative).
Pat Cox supports special summit on Iraq
"At the moment when the Convention on the Future of Europe has just published the first substantial draft of its thinking, the actual conduct of foreign policy relations at the highest political level in the EU underlines a dramatic divide between high aspirations, modest capacity and wholly inadequate political will", European Parliament Pat Cox commented. He called on the EU to spare no effort in seeking a common accord "even at this late stage in terms of the current Iraqi crisis", and said: "That is why I have called for a special meeting of the European Council on Iraq".
War in Iraq would cause a humanitarian catastrophe in the region, Belgian Green Paul Lannoye warned. He was at the head of the Greens/EFA delegation during the EP's recent visit to Baghdad (the same view was expressed by members of other political groups: see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7, for comments by GUE/NGL President Francis Wurtz). The MEP, who said that the delegation had wanted to get a first hand impression of the humanitarian situation in the country by meeting ordinary citizens, international NGOs and UN Agencies, denounced the effect of sanctions on Iraq: food shortages, malnutrition among children and increasing health problems especially in the South where "congenital malformations and children's leukaemia have reached a peak". Economic sanctions must be lifted, he states, noting that the "Oil for Food Programme" is "too limited and is hindering local production and does not meet the real needs of the population".