Brussels, 24/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - In a letter published on 23 January, the leader of the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament, Francis Wurtz, called on EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering to invite EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana to speak on the situation in Gaza at the mini plenary session on 30 January. Solana is scheduled to speak to MEPs about the situation in Iran. “We cannot remain indifferent to the deaths of some 40 civilians,” says Wurtz in his letter, and he condemns “the collective punishment inflicted on Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government's halting vital supplies of fuel and electricity”.
According to a GUE/NGL spokesman, the EP President had still not replied by midday on 24 January. With there being no conference of the presidents before 30 January, the change in the agenda can only be made through a vote by MEPs at the start of the session.
In a press release published on 24 January, Cypriot MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides, who belongs to the same party as Wurtz, and who chairs the EP delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, condemns the comments by Justice, Liberty and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini in his speech at Herzliya in Israel. According to the Israeli press, Frattini said that Israel's actions “did not constitute war crimes”. “What is happening in Gaza is a major catastrophe,” Triantaphyllides says. “The action of Israel against Gaza … is to be deplored by the international community and not supported,” he concludes. (L.B.S.)