Bid to clarify Union’s role in Middle East

Date: 30/03/2000

By Simon Taylor

EXTERNAL Relations Commissioner Chris Patten will make his first official visit to the Middle East next week as the Union tries to define its role in developing the region once a peace deal has been struck.

As negotiations continue, EU governments and the European Commission are focusing their attention on how member states can give political and economic support to parties to the hoped-for agreement.

Patten, who will visit Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon on 4-7 April, and the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana have been drafting a joint 'vision paper' on the Union's possible contribution to a post-peace deal scenario. Officials expect to finalise the paper by April, but are unsure whether it will be ready for the next meeting of foreign ministers on 10 April.

Civil servants involved in drafting the report are reluctant to reveal details at this stage, but say it will set out the key political and economic objectives of Union policy for parties to the agreement. One option is for the EU to provide security personnel to police any border arrangements in the deal.

One official said that the paper would not include precise assessments of the Union's financial aid to the region, even though Union governments are the biggest providers of aid to the Palestinian authority and the peace process.

The EU's focus on the post-peace deal situation comes amid increased concern at slow progress in negotiations between Israel, the Palestinians and their neighbours. US President Bill Clinton's efforts to kick-start talks between Jerusalem and Syria have so far failed, despite a meeting with Syrian President Hafez al-Hassad in Geneva last weekend. Damascus and Jerusalem are deadlocked over Al-Hassad's insistence on a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten is to make his first official visit to the Middle East, 4-7.4.00 as the Union tries to define its role in developing the region once a peace deal has been struck.