EU to support Palestinian police

EU foreign ministers at the General Affairs and External Relations Council, Brussels, 21 November 2005 have approved a European police mission to monitor the Egypt-Gaza Strip border crossing. On the basis of the agreement on movement and access between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which it welcomed as a major breakthrough, the Council agreed that the EU should undertake the third party role proposed in the agreement and decided to launch, as a matter of urgency, an ESDP mission to monitor the operations of the Rafah border crossing point. The Council also endorsed the appointment of Major General Pietro Pistolese as head of mission, approved a Concept of Operations for this mission and looked forward to the early deployment of an initial team of monitors to allow operations at Rafah to begin as soon as possible.

Council of the European union: Press Release: PRES/05/289 http://consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/gena/87077.pdf

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