Działania Wspólnot Europejskich/Unii Europejskiej na rzecz pokoju izraelsko-palestyńskiego

Abstract

The period between 1970 and 2007 saw the ever-increasing involvement of the European Communities for the sake of the Israeli-Palestinian peace. The EC declared its position regarding the conflict in its successive declarations (in 1971, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1999 and 2002). The expected future agreement was to be based upon the United Nations’ resolutions and on the Palestinian nation’s right of self-determination. In 1980, due to divergences between interests of its members and effective policies, the EC withdrew from active politics in the Middle East, only to renew its commitment to the Middle East peace process (MEPP) in the wake of political changes of early 1990s. The EU representatives have taken part in activities of working groups of the peace conference in Madrid, although their role was in fact limited to economic issues. In 1995 the Mediterranean Partnership was established, in which the
MEPP found its place in the part devoted to political partnership. Unfortunately, the peace process collapsed in 1996. In 1997 the EU put forth a catalogue of proposals concerning the return to negotiations and peace debate. At the same time the Euro-Mediterranean Interim Association Agreement on trade and cooperation between the European Community and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip came into effect.
Nevertheless, the EU activities in that area over all that time have to be judged critically as having little effect. The EU politicians, aware of that, have seemed to prefer to just stick to their previous standpoint concerning the future agreement, where economic cooperation was seen as one of the ways leading to stabilization.