Brussels, 25/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - While foreign affairs ministers from the contact group on the Lebanon are holding an emergency meeting on 26 July in Rome on the conflict in the Lebanon (EUROPE 9238), Portugal has also called on the Finnish presidency to arrange an EU emergency meeting on the crisis. In a press statement, the foreign affairs minister said that “”rapid developments in the political and diplomatic field, the continuation of military confrontation and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation justify this meeting” of foreign ministers from the EU25. On Monday the Portuguese foreign minister, Luis Amado, sent a letter to this effect to his Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, who chairs the Council of the EU. The Portuguese minister's press release emphasised that “this proposal by the Portuguese government is testimony to its desire to see the EU actively involved in finding a solution to the conflict by expressing itself with a single voice”.
On Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Finnish presidency of the EU said that it was aware of the Portuguese request and affirmed that a decision on the possible holding of an extraordinary meeting of the Council of the EU would be taken on the basis of results from the Rome meeting on Wednesday, as well as the visit of Mr Tuomioja to the Middle East this week (27-28 July).
Meanwhile, the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso also gave his support to the idea of deploying an international peace-keeping force to the south of Lebanon. He said that he would prefer this to be mainly a European force, in an effort to get the fighting stopped between Israel and the Hezbollah militias. He explained to journalists in Porto, “I think that it is clear that this international presence is necessary because the level of trust between the belligerent parties is non-existent”. He added that, “Only an international force can guarantee minimum conditions for peace. Personally, I would appreciate that this force were mainly European and that members of the Union be ready to participate in it once it has been approved by the United Nations”. On Sunday prime minister Ehud Olmert declared that his government would agree to a European peace-keeping force in the south of Lebanon (EUROPE 9238).