28-29 October General Affairs Council

Date: 31/10/1996

EU GOVERNMENTS named Miguel Angel Moratinos, Spain's 45-year-old ambassador to Israel, as their permanent envoy to the Middle East. Moratinos was a key organiser of the Union's successful Euro-Mediterranean conference in Barcelona last November. That meeting was hailed as the first gathering to bring Israeli, PLO and Syrian leaders together outside the United Nations. Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring said the envoy would report to the Council of Ministers, but would not be directly involved in peace negotiations. Through regular reports from the region, he would help EU member states develop and carry out a common policy there.

EGYPTIAN Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said after a cooperation council meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg that the Union had the means to help bring peace to the region. He urged EU foreign ministers to put pressure on Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu's government to reverse its 'unconstructive' policies. Union ministers agreed with Moussa in calling for Israel to withdraw its troops from the West Bank town of Hebron.

OVERCOMING Danish objections, foreign ministers finally voted unanimously to approve retaliatory measures against Washington's Helms-Burton legislation targeting companies with dealings in Cuba. They agreed on a new Union law forbidding European firms or individuals from complying with the American law and allowing Europeans to counter-sue if sued in the US courts for doing business in Cuba. Copenhagen said its constitution would not allow it to support the initiative, but officials eventually found a hitherto-overlooked article in the Treaty of Rome which satisfied Danish qualms about whether the EU had the power to act collectively to defend European business interests.

MINISTERS expressed grave concern over the looming war in Zaïre and called on opposing parties in Zaïre and neighbouring Rwanda to “exercise restraint” to try to solve their disputes through dialogue. They also ordered EU special envoy Aldo Ajello to return to the region and facilitate dialogue between the two governments. Noting that another exodus of refugees could throw the region into chaos, ministers said they would work closely with the UN High Commission for Refugees, and called for a regional conference under the auspices of the UN and the Organisation for African Unity. Some 300,000 refugees from Rwanda and Burundi are caught up in the fighting between Zaïrian troops and ethnic Tutsis in the east of the country. Belgium asked its EU partners to support the electoral process in Zaïre with some 200 million ecu in aid and personnel.

TO PUNISH Burma's military government for its human rights abuses, ministers agreed to deny entry visas to the EU for members of the government and top military officers, and their families. Spring said his talks last month with Burmese Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw had failed to produce any results, and that the visa denial was part of a gradual build-up of pressure on Rangoon. The Commission is considering withdrawing Burma's trading privileges with the Union.