INFORMAL MEETING OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, EVIAN (FRANCE), September 2^nd, 2000

Excerpts From the concluding press conference by M. Hubert VEDRINE,

President of the European Union

“We have evoked the Middle-East file in the course of the Luncheon on September 2^nd.

We confronted our respective analyses.

We were no longer quite in the same context as we thought at the time we chose this subject.

Since the Palestinians themselves question themselves, not on their rights or on the unilateral proclamation of a Palestinian state – a right which was recognized as theirs by the Berlin Declaration and that nobody dreams of challenging, and therefore this right is secured – but they question themselves about the opportunity, about the conditions, the proper timing (to do it), and this is a wise questioning regarding this issue.

And the 15 are indeed quite favorable, ardently wish that the bilateral, trilateral, multiple contacts taking place presently may lead to the resumption of a genuine negotiation starting from the assets of Camp David, which signaled a real historical breakthrough, and that starting from there may be concluded this peace agreement that we all desire so much, and to which Europeans have all worked in their own way for nearly twenty years. The Europeans have played a very important role in the evolution of mentalities.

The matter is now to conclude peace, and afterwards it will be to build it.

In the construction of peace, Europe will of course occupy a central place, for reasons of proximity, of geography and of economy.

In the conclusion of peace, the historical responsibility pertains to the Israelis and the Palestinians, through a work of ingeniousness to find formulas to settle the refugee question, to succeed in distributing and combining sovereignties in Jerusalem and on the Holy Sites in the best possible way, and all those who might have ideas comprising some added value can be useful in this process.

But one must not confuse those who help and those who, at the end of the day, decide before their people and before History.

We want to do all we can, all the fifteen of us, so that this historic decision may be taken before a long time elapses, for this is a decisive, but short moment, this moment when peace is possible.”