Brussels, 27/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - The Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) opened its session at the European Parliament in Brussels on 27 March in an atmosphere affected not only by the recent ruckus over the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad and considered blasphemous in Muslim countries, but also by the situation in the Middle East. No Israeli representative will attend the session, as all Israeli parliamentarians have to remain in their country for the elections on 28 March. Palestinians will be there but the elected representatives of the Palestinian Legislative Council (CLP) were unable to obtain visas for entry into Europe, as their party, Hamas, is on the EU's anti-terrorist black list. CLP Vice-President Hassan Khreishi, elected as an independent party member, called on the EU to waive the ban on Hamas, saying: “You wish to promote dialogue, so you should enter into dialogue with the interlocutors chosen democratically by the Palestinian people”. They added that “Hamas is the party of the majority”. This affirmation was upheld by Belgian Socialist Véronique de Keyser, who headed the EU observer missions to oversee Palestinian elections on 25 January. In substance she said it is necessary to discuss the programme of the new Palestinian Authority and maintain support for the Palestinian people. The CLP vice-president also warned against any interruption in the provision of such aid, as this would only add to the “economic stifling” of the Palestinian territories by the Israelis.
The session was opened by the president of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, who then handed over the role of president of the Euro-Mediterranean Assembly for one year to the president of the Tunisian Parliament, Fouad Mebeeza. In its first two years of existence, Josep Borrell said, the Assembly has “taken its first steps in a high-risk context”. The “political climate in the Mediterranean has deteriorated”, he regretted, speaking of the “international problem caused by the Danish cartoon affair”. In this “crisis”, our Assembly acted “rapidly” by adopting the first joint statement between Europeans and Arabs on the matter, he recalled, going on to say: “fortunately, passions have now calmed (…) but the price we have paid (…) has no doubt been excessive”. While stressing that “freedom of expression is a fundamental value of the EU and the Barcelona Declaration”, Mr Borrell commented that the crisis has provoked very different reactions: “On one side there are the Nobel Prize-winners who stress the irreverence shown to others and, on the other side, there are those who propose laws to curb freedom of expression” in order to respect religions. Freedom of the press must be honoured in a responsible way and in compliance with the law “but it is dangerous to incriminate governments for what the media publish”, Mr Borrell warned. On the subject of the growing tension between the two shores of the Mediterranean, Mr Borrell recalled that the withdrawal of international observers (British and American) and the almost immediate ensuing military raid on the prison of Jericho heightened these tensions and forced President Mahmoud Abbas to break off his visit to Europe and to the European Parliament. The Palestinian elections are not the only ones to show growing support for “political Islamism”, Mr Borrell asserted, adding that: “'in Egypt and Iraq there is the same trend, and surveys show that other countries will follow”. “It is urgent to come out of this atmosphere of conflict”, Mr Borrell urged, warning that one of our main objectives is to “bring our societies closer together. We have supported the idea of an 'alliance of civilisations'. We must now contribute to giving it a content. That is why the Anna Lindh Foundation was created, to be chaired from now on by Jordanian Muhteddin Haban Tuq”. Our Assembly must reflect on the “profound causes for this malaise”, Mr Borrell stressed, urging his colleagues to “be a real laboratory for ideas (…) We must structure our work better”. “Let us now deal with application of the agenda for coming years. We must be demanding with our governments (…) that is the real function of parliamentary representatives”. In concrete terms, Mr Borrell welcomed the decision to create an ad hoc committee on women's rights in the Mediterranean and noted that the Assembly's Bureau has authorised extension of the mandate for the working group on peace in the Middle East. The “Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been the weak point of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. Unfortunately, we must continue to fight, as in the past, in order to move forward despite this open wound”, he said. Mr Borrell added that, very soon, the government of the Palestinian Authority will be formed and it is to be hoped that this plenary will be able to send a clear message to that government. He said they should call on it to fulfil all its international commitments as regards Europe but also the Arab world and in the context of the Arab League. These commitments include the implementation of the Roadmap. He said, “we expect Israel to meet its commitments also”.
In a short speech, Ambassador El-Wahah Derbal, personal representative of the secretary-general of the Arab League, recalled the challenges to be met by his organisation, which is to hold a summit in Khartoum on 28 October. European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner has been invited to attend.
In her address to the Assembly, Benita Ferrero-Waldner outlined short to medium-term measures the European Commission is planning under the Barcelona EuroMed Process. On behalf of the Austrian Presidency, Austrian minister Franz Morac outlined how the process had moved on since the Barcelona Summit of November 2005.
The day before the meeting (to which Europe will be returning), the parliamentary committees on policy, security and human rights, culture and humanitarian issues (including immigration) and economic and social affairs met to amend the texts to be submitted to the plenary in the form of a single resolution. The most lively debate took place at the policy committee, focussing as expected on the case of the Danish caricatures and also, less controversially, on the situation in the Middle East. There was general agreement that the debate had been very confused, especially over articles calling for special EU legislation against islamophobia. The group of MEPs rejected this short text outright and it was re-written on the request of various MEPs. Only a Swedish MEP joined forces with Egyptian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Moroccan MPs to call for special legislation. Cherify Osman, a Swedish Social Democrat MEP, explained that she had done so because it was customary in Sweden to defend minority rights.
On the Middle East, various parliamentarians (including MEPs like Veronique de Keyser, Luisa Morgantini, Helene Flautre and Pasqualina Napoletano) suggested amending the draft text calling for Palestinians to respect what had been won in the Peace Process to date and the commitments made to the Roadmap. The same appeal was also made to Israel, in the interests of fairness, to the future government following Tuesday's elections. Veronique de Keyser said dialogue was necessary with the people chosen democratically by the population, while Pasqualina Napoletano said the government formed by Hamas had to recognise Israel and the commitments already made. The CLP vice-president replied that in reality, all the PLO had recognised it and surely she wouldn't call for all Palestinian factions in the PLO, including Hamas, to recognise it every time? He criticised people in Europe who have a colonial mentality and defend the occupation, telling them to stop lamenting human rights and look at what is being done to the Palestinian people and how neither parliamentarians nor citizens can attend sessions of the Palestinian parliament in any way other than video. He said they were hypocrites because they didn't even protest about the destruction of infrastructure paid for by the European taxpayer.