CONCLUSIONS
BRUSSELS GENERAL AFFAIRS COUNCIL

14/15 february 2000

MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

The Council discussed the recent events in the Middle East with deepest concern and reiterated the European Union’s commitment to exert its maximum efforts and to work with all parties in supporting the Peace Process.

It recalled the declaration by the Presidency on Lebanon of 9 February and renewed the appeal to all parties to exercise utmost restraint and refrain from further acts of violence. It expressed the hope that the Monitoring Committee would convene and secure full respect for the April 1996 Cease-Fire Understanding and a further de-escalation as a first step towards progress on the Syrian and also on the Lebanese Tracks.

Regarding the Palestinian Track of the Peace Process, the Council expressed regret and concern that the parties had  not been able to conclude a Framework Agreement on Permanent Status issues by the target date foreseen in the Sharm-el-Sheikh Memorandum. Having considered the contents of the letter addressed by Chairman Arafat to the Prime Minister of Portugal, the Council requested the Presidency, together with the Secretary General/High Representative (SG/HR) to reaffirm the EU’s commitment to support the Peace Process, to recall the importance of timely implementation of agreements and to urge the parties to resume negotiations without further delay with a view to concluding Permanent Status negotiations within the agreed target period.

The Council invited the Presidency and the SG/HR – assisted by the EU Special Envoy (EUSE) – and the Commission to take forward work on the Multilateral Track on the basis of the positive outcome of the Ministerial meeting of the Steering Committee in Moscow on 1 February.

The Council expressed hope that work on both the Bilateral and the Multilateral Tracks would soon resume in order to attain a comprehensive, lasting and just peace in the Middle East.