Euro-Med Assembly: The Annapolis process should continue

Oct 13, 2008, 23:05 GMT

Amman- The Euro-Med Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA) ended a two-day session Monday at the Dead Sea resort by urging continuation of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as outlined in the November 2007 Annapolis conference.

'The momentum launched at Annapolis has enabled Israelis and Palestinians to restart their dialogue and must be continued,' said President of the European Union Hans-Gert Pottering, who also serves as president-in-office of EMPA.

He called for speedy solutions to two issues that hinder the peace negotiations: 'the expansion of settlements, which is undermining the Palestinians' confidence' in the peace process, and 'the extremely restricted freedom of movement of Palestinians,' which has hindered investment in the Palestinian economy and prevented economic recovery.

Given that EMPA countries provide 60 per cent of all aid to the Palestinians, Pottering warned of the need to prevent donors being overcome by 'a certain fatigue, or lack of interest in the fate of the Palestinians.'

He said that it was 'unacceptable that the fruits of financial solidarity should be wiped out as a result of military operations or for security reasons, however legitimate they may be.'

The EMPA meeting asked Euro-Med foreign ministers to officially recognize EMPA as the 'democratically legitimized parliamentary institution' of the Union for the Mediterranean, which was launched in July in Paris by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.