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| Hamas victory: EU to discuss “new situation”
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Javier Solana, the EU's top foreign policy official, in Rafah last December
Photo: The European Council
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The European Union’s top foreign policy official, Javier Solana, has warned that the apparent victory by Hamas in Wednesday’s Palestinian parliamentary elections “may confront us with an entirely new situation”.
According to the initial results released on Thursday, Hamas captured a large majority of seats and is poised to form the next Palestinian government. Palestinian Authority prime minister Ahmed Qureia and his cabinet ministers, all members of the Fatah ruling party, submitted their resignation on Thursday.
In a statement, Solana announced that the EU council of foreign ministers will analyse the results of the elections at a meeting in Brussels next Monday. The council is the forum in which the bloc's 25 member states set its foreign policy.
“The EU will express its views and prospects for cooperation with the future Palestinian government in the light of that discussion and of developments on the ground,” Solana said.
Solana, the EU’s High Representative for the common foreign and security policy, also announced that the so-called ‘Quartet’ (Unites States, Russia, EU and United Nations) would also discuss the new situation created by Hamas’ victory during its next meeting in London on Monday.
Democracy welcomed
Solana welcomed the fact that the “Palestinian people have voted democratically and peacefully” and noted that the European Union “has supported the smooth running of these elections.”
Last month, Solana threatened to freeze European aid to the Palestinian authority if Hamas wins this month’s poll.
“It is very difficult that parties that do not condemn violence without changing these positions can be partners for the future,” he told journalists at the time.
Both the United States and Israel have ruled out dealing with Hamas in government.
The Islamist movement, which is officially committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, is on the EU's list of banned terrorist groups after a series of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.
Israel's ambassador to the European Union, Oded Eran, said earlier this week the bloc should have nothing to do with Hamas even if it joined the government.
Earlier on Thursday, the European external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner declared that the European Commission “would work with any government that used peaceful means.”
"Even we don’t have the official results, it is clear that Hamas has really got a very large proportion of the vote," European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the European Parliament foreign affairs committee.
"What is important is that we state we are happy to work with any government if that government is prepared to work by peaceful means," she said.
Financial provision
The 25-nation European Union is the biggest provider of aid to the Palestinian Authority, amounting to 500 million euros last year, of which 280 million came from the common EU budget and the rest from member states.
The Commission is the EU’s executive arm and administers its external assistance programmes, but it has limited influence on EU foreign policy.
The EU has recently suspended 35 million euros in aid to the Palestinians, citing their lack of budgetary discipline by the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinian delegate-general to the EU and Belgium, Leila Shahid, told Belgian radio Thursday the EU should apply the same conditionality in its relations with the Palestinian Authority as it did to other Mediterranean partners, and it should hold Israel to account by the same standard.
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