Blair’s Middle East meeting could hit EU status

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 17/02/05

Concern is growing in Brussels that a conference on Palestinian reform to take place in London next month could damage the EU's standing in the Middle East peace process.

The meeting, announced by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair last December during a visit to the Levant, is scheduled to take place on 1 March. It will focus on economic, political and security reform in the Palestinian territories.

But diplomats this week said that Brussels was not informed of plans to hold the conference before Blair announced them publicly. The EU institutions were later told that the event was being organised with the US.

Diplomats fear that the EU is being sidelined in a conference that has much to do with Blair's position within his ruling Labour party and upcoming UK elections. There is also concern that relations with the new Palestinian government have been soured in the process. The Palestinians are said to have voiced a number of concerns about the conference.

According to diplomats, there is anger that the meeting will shift attention away from Israel's obligations under the Road Map, concern that the conference could weaken new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's domestic standing and scepticism that economic issues could be dealt with without the Israeli government attending. The Palestinian Authority announced this week that Abbas would not attend the meeting. Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei will represent the authority. "It was obvious they [the UK] had not co-ordinated with the Palestinians," said one Arab diplomat.

But Afif Safieh, the Palestinian representative to the UK, sought to play down any fears. "Things are moving smoothly, talks are continuing," he said.

He played down Israel's non-attendance, saying that "there are issues that do not require the Israelis to be present".

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan are expected to attend the conference, which will coincide with a meeting of the Quartet on the Middle East, composed of the US, EU, Russia and the UN.

Article reports that concern was growing among EU diplomats that a conference on Palestinian reform to take place in London on 1 March 2005 could damage the EU's standing in the Middle East peace process. The meeting, announced by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in December 2004 during a visit to the Levant, was planned to focus on economic, political and security reform in the Palestinian territories.