7-8 September General Affairs Informal

Date: 12/09/1996

FOREIGN ministers condemned Iraqi incursions into Kurdish safe havens in northern Iraq and called on Saddam Hussein to withdraw his troops immediately, adding that the deployment had upset the stability of the region and violated UN resolution 688 guaranteeing protection for the Kurds. However, they made it clear that many EU member states disapproved of the US bombardments of Iraqi territory bordering the safe haven by declaring their respect for the territorial integrity of Iraq. Ministers called on UN Secretary- General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to proceed with plans to reimplement an oil-for-food exchange policy, under which Iraq would trade 700,000 barrels of oil per day in return for 1.6 billion ecu of food and medicine every six months. The programme was suspended because of Iraqi troop incursions into the Kurdish region.

MINISTERS welcomed the recent meeting between Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat as a sign that the Middle East peace process was back on track. They stressed, however, that Netanyahu would have to do much more than just meet Arafat. “The meeting is one we will not underestimate, as long as it produces rapid progress on the many issues still hanging,” said French Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette. These include agreeing on the status of Jerusalem, lifting the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territories, allowing free movement in the West Bank and Gaza, and the removal of Israeli troops from the West Bank city of Hebron. The ministers also urged Israel to begin negotiating with Syria and called for the integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon to be respected. After discussing a planned EU troika visit to Jerusalem, ministers said they would not change their July decision that all EU visits to the city must include a stop at Orient House, the Palestinian Authority's office in east Jerusalem. After being told by Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy that the Palestinians were not insisting on this, Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring, who chaired the weekend meeting, said he would ask the Palestinians directly.

THE EU should maintain its presence in Bosnia for another two years, ministers agreed. They also informally adopted France's “peace consolidation plan” for providing financial and technical assistance to help the institutions created after next Saturday's (14 September) elections. Ministers said they wanted Bosnia to hold municipal elections “as soon as possible” and before the end of the year. International High Representative Carl Bildt said he hoped for a mid-November date.

EU governments expressed their “absolute opposition” to US Helms-Burton legislation punishing Europeans for profiting from Cuban property expropriated from Americans. No nation, they said, should unilaterally impose its laws on others. But rather than carry out their threat to ask for a World Trade Organisation arbitration panel on the dispute, ministers appeared to agree to postpone such action until after the US elections on 5 November. Commission President Jacques Santer said the EU preferred to give President Clinton a chance to negotiate with Congress after the elections. French Minister Hervé de Charette admitted that 5 November was “not very far away”.

THE Irish presidency reiterated its pledge to have a draft text of the revised Maastricht Treaty ready to give to Dutch officials when they take over the EU presidency in January. Spring said the text would be produced in time for the December summit in Dublin. Foreign ministers set 5 October as the date for a mini-summit in Dublin, which Spring said would be an occasion for top-level reflection on Intergovernmental Conference matters. Santer called on EU leaders to make “breakthroughs” on key IGC issues.

LED by Belgium, ministers agreed to promote an EU-wide initiative to combat sexual abuse and the exploitation of children. They agreed that their governments would begin work immediately on proposals to be discussed by EU justice and interior ministers at their informal meeting in Dublin on 27 September. The Commission also said it would present a proposal at that meeting.