MEPP: Speech by HR/VP Josep Borrell in the EP on the US Middle East initiative

Mr President, Honourable Members, 

I am really grateful for having this opportunity to address you today on the Middle East Peace Process.  This issue is of fundamental, strategic importance to the European Union.  

For too long we have been witnessing a conflict that has caused endless suffering for generations of Israelis and Palestinians alike. The increasingly dire situation on the ground – including violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion, illegal by the way, and the consequences of the ongoing occupation – has destroyed hope on both sides and reduced the viability of a two-state solution.

At an international level, for a number of years, there has been little or no substantive engagement in efforts to resolve the conflict. Indeed, as one observer pointed out to me recently, there is neither peace nor a process.  

In recent years, we on the European Union side, are perhaps the only actor to have stayed the course.  

We have been vocal in our support for a negotiated two-state solution, based on the internationally agreed parameters and in accordance with international law.  This means a two-state solution based on the parameters set in the Council Conclusions of July 2014 that meets Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation that began in 1967, and resolves all permanent status issues in order to end the conflict.

Our European vision is a principled one and a pragmatic one. It reflects our broader attachment, as Europeans, to the rules-based international order.  

We are also active on the ground.  No other international actor has been as engaged as we have been in practical efforts to build a future Palestinian state.  In 2019 alone, the European Union and its Member States had an open portfolio of some €600 million in assistance to the Palestinians.  I have said it during my hearing, €600 million is almost €1.5 Million a day. 

But where are we today?  

It remains my firm view that there is still a way forward if both the parties are willing to resume credible and meaningful negotiations. International support for any such efforts will clearly be crucial to their success. In this regard, the tabling of concrete proposals such as the United States did can be helpful, both as a catalyst for deeper reflection on the way forward, and as a potential opportunity to kick-start a political process which has been at a standstill for too long.   

However, as I have said, the proposals tabled two weeks ago clearly challenge the internationally agreed parameters. It is difficult to see how this initiative can bring both parties back to the table.  

Twenty-five out of twenty-seven Member States of the Foreign Affairs Council support this consideration. Two were against it. So it was not a unanimous decision of the Council and I cannot present it like this but as a statement of the High Representative, which I am repeating here again. 

Last week I was in Washington, during a very busy day talking with all foreign affairs external policies higher authorities of the US government interlocutors. I made this point to my interlocutors: we need to ask ourselves whether this plan provides a basis for progress or not.  We need to know whether the proposals themselves are really open for negotiations. Is it a starting point or the end? For the European Union’s part, our position is clear:  we are ready to work with the international community to revive a political process in line with international law, which ensures equal rights and which is acceptable to both parties.  

Thank you for your attention and I look forward to an important discussion, which I am sure will now follow