30/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - French Green member Hélène Flautre, Chair of the Sub-Committee on Human Rights at the European Parliament, regrets in a press release that, during the plenary session of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels last Monday, the Belgian authorities, in agreement with the Council, had refused to grant entry visas to Belgium for Palestinian representatives of the Hamas party, thus preventing them from taking part in the EMPA meeting (see EUROPE 9161 and 9162). Ms Flautre added that Europe cannot, on one side, encourage the Arab countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel to invite Israeli deputies to EMPA meetings, as was the case during the Rabat meeting for example, and, on the other, refuse access to European territory of democratically elected members of the Palestinian parliament.