BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Union could resume direct aid to the Palestinian Authority next month, External Relations European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Monday.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Palestinian foreign minister Ziad Abu Amr in the framework of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Ferrero-Waldner said:”Hopefully at the next council we will be able to take a decision.”
EU ministers are to discuss the issue at a meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19.
Ferrero-Waldner said she had been “encouraged” by the discussions with Abu Amr, saying she believed the new government was making progress in meeting some of the key challenges facing Palestinians.
EU member states have agreed to hold discussions with non-Hamas members of the new Palestinian government of national unity.
The EU stopped direct assistance to the Hamas-led government last year.
Hamas is listed as a terrorist organisation by the EU.
Prospects for a resumption of EU aid to the PA improved in March after Hamas and Fatah agreed to enter into a coalition government.
However, for funds to start flowing again directly to the Palestinian Authority, the EU says the new Palestinian government must recognize Israel’s right to exist, stop with violence and agree to abide by past peace agreements.
The EU is supporting the Palestinian people through a temporary funding mechanism.
The Palestinian foreign minister is to attend on Tuesday an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
Arab peace initiative
The EU foreign ministers were also due to meet later on Monday with a high-level Arab League delegation to discuss EU support for a revived Arab plan for a land-for-peace deal with Israel.
The EU has welcomed the initiative as a step in the right direction.
As well as Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Abu Amr, the delegation includes the foreign ministers of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Egypt and Qatar.
The European Union’s German presidency said Monday that the revived Arab League peace initiative for the Middle East must be given a chance to succeed.
"It is important that the talks process can be kept stable so that such a peace initiative has the chance to prevail," German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said.
He added: "The Palestinian side need to be sure that the negotiations are moving towards an independent state, living in peace side by side with Israel. The Israeli side need a political horizon which includes security and no violence."
He added that while the EU had invited the Arab ministers this time round, they would invite Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni to their meeting next month.
The Arab peace initiative, first presented by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and revived at an Arab League summit last March, would offer the normalisation of ties with Israel in return for full withdrawal from Arab lands seized in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
