What is the EU stance on Hamas funding?
EU Offers Hamas Time to Moderate Stance on Israel (Update1)
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- European Union foreign ministers ruled out an immediate cutoff of financial aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, saying the movement deserves a chance to give up its armed struggle and embrace peace with Israel.
Hamas, branded as a terrorist group by Europe and the U.S., won 74 of 132 parliamentary seats in last week's Palestinian election, ending the four-decade dominance of Palestinian politics by the more moderate Fatah movement founded by Yasser Arafat.
``We are looking to Hamas to renounce violence,'' U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels today. European governments ``have an opportunity to pause and to think about'' putting conditions on EU financial support.
Europe is the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority, spending 500 million euros ($604 million) in 2005 on utilities, food aid, social services and election support. Hamas has threatened to tap Iran, now battling the EU and U.S. over its nuclear program, to replace any lost EU aid.
``We still have three or four weeks to make up our minds,'' Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said. ``Once people are in power, maybe they change their position.''
Money Woes
A shortage of cash makes the Palestinian Authority vulnerable to pressure from Europe. Palestinians' main source of income apart from EU aid consists of Israeli-collected taxes on Palestinian goods.
``The key lies in the Palestinian territories,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said. ``There, a decision needs to be taken on whether to take the political path. That means renouncing violence, putting down arms and recognizing Israel's right to exist.''
An EU delegation travels to London later today to discuss the way forward with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who yesterday called for a halt in aid to put pressure on Hamas to commit to the peace process.
Emboldened by a charter that calls for the destruction of Israel, Hamas has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings over the past five years. Israel, facing its own election on March 28, has ruled out peace talks with a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority that refuses to give up its weapons.
Cooperation
Israel controls the borders to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, making its cooperation essential to the governing of the 4 million Palestinians who live there or to the management of the Palestinian economy.
Israel used that leverage today, suspending a transfer of over 200 million shekels ($43 million) in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority until Hamas falls in line with the peace process.
``There is a big choice now before Hamas,'' Straw said. ``They are going to have to deal with the government of Israel, if they want to deliver many of the welfare things they say they want to deliver to their own people.''
Off-and-on negotiations have been under way since 2003 under a ``road map'' devised by the U.S., EU, Russia and the United Nations that sets the establishment of a Palestinian state as the ultimate goal.
Germany has pressed the EU to take a hard line on Hamas, with new Chancellor Angela Merkel saying the new Palestinian government must reject violence, accept Israel's right to exist and take an active part in the peace process.
``Europe always has said that it will not do business with a regime that intends to eliminate another country and that favors terrorist attacks,'' Bot said.
U.S. aid to the Palestinians since the 1993 signing of the Oslo peace accords has topped $1.7 billion, though most of it hasn't been channeled through the Palestinian Authority.
EU 'to keep funding Palestinians'
The European Union says it will continue funding the Palestinian Authority so long as its new government is committed to peace with Israel.
EU ministers renewed their call for Hamas to renounce violence and recognise the Jewish state following the militant group's election victory.
Earlier Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged foreign donors to continue giving aid to the Palestinians.
EU member states donated about $600m (£341m) to the Palestinians in 2005.
But Hamas' landslide victory has left the union in a quandary because the group, which has launched dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis, figures on an EU list of terrorist groups.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, who chaired the talks in Brussels, said the EU expects the new Palestinian assembly to "support the formation of a government committed to a peaceful and negotiated solution of the conflict with Israel".
'Wait and see'
The US has also said it would stop its aid to the PA if Hamas failed to renounce violence or recognise Israel.
On Monday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was "attentive to the humanitarian concerns of the Palestinian people", but would wait and see before making a decision on whether it would continue its aid.
Earlier Mr Abbas urged donors not to cut funding to ensure "that the institutions continue to function and the plan to build our independent Palestinian state is not disrupted or derailed".
Speaking after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Mr Abbas said it was vital that the work of the Palestinian Authority should carry on as normal.
He also reiterated his commitment to the peace process "through negotiations and according to international legitimacy".
Meanwhile Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya called on the US and the EU to respect the democratic choice of the Palestinian people and engage in a dialogue with the movement.
Representatives from the "Quartet" group of Middle East mediators - the EU, the US, Russia and the UN - are meeting in London to consider relations with Hamas.
1: World Bank $85m
2: Isr/Pal integration $12m
3: UN relief (UNRWA) $77m
4: Food aid $35m
5: Humanitarian aid $33m
6: Special projects $24m
7: Infrastructure $72m
8: Member states $262m
EU TOTAL: $600m
1: 2003/04 rollover $175m
2: PA debts $20m
3: Gaza infrastructure $50m
4: USAID projects $155m
US TOTAL: $400m
Sources: EU, US
Published: 2006/01/30 20:20:58 GMT
Jamie Smyth European Diary
EU leaders not singing from same Salzburg hymn sheet
The 250th celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday brought a deluge of musicians, music lovers and tourists to Salzburg last weekend, eager to soak up the carnival atmosphere.
The EU also decamped to the baroque city to discuss European identity, culture and the fate of the European project at its "Sound of Europe" conference.
The hope was that a little bit of Mozart magic could inspire new ideas, but at times it seemed that another Hapsburg-era genius, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud - who celebrates his 150th anniversary this year - had taken charge of proceedings.
There was certainly angst and agonising self-examination with French prime minister Dominique de Villepin talking up the "crisis in EU decision-making", while European Commission president José Manuel Barroso was declaring the crisis over.
There was also talk of an "identity crisis" and "democratic deficit" in the EU, where citizens no longer empathised with the project's original goal to prevent war. People had forgotten what it meant to be European, while a drift towards materialism was undermining traditional European values of tolerance, human rights and diversity.
One eminent speaker quipped that if you asked an American what made up his identity, he would reply a house, a dog and a car, while European identity meant much more to people. Another speaker doubted this was true for most young Europeans.
Unfortunately, among all the "self-flagellation" and occasional back-slapping, there were few concrete ideas on how to rejuvenate Europe, except perhaps Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's quirky suggestion of holding an EU café day when citizens could meet to talk "Europe".
While this may boost Austria's economy by attracting more tourists to Vienna's famous coffee houses, it is hardly going to stop the downward drift in support for Europe - now at 50 per cent in Eurobarometer polls.
Mr Barroso spoke of spending more EU cash on culture and education while reminding member states they are proposing cuts in support for this segment of the EU budget.
French presidential hopeful de Villepin produced the most interesting speech, touching on Europe's almost unique commitment to offer proper social services and protection to employees while listing many of its great cultural achievements. However, it was his broadside against enlargement that is likely to set the tone for the rest of 2006.
In a speech that went down exceptionally well with his Austrian hosts, de Villepin warned that Turkey was not guaranteed a passport into the EU club and even if it met enlargement criteria set by the EU, it would have to pass a French referendum.
Given the aversion to the "Polish plumber" in Paris and the failure of French politicians to campaign effectively for a Yes vote in the EU constitutional referendum, one must ask: what chance does the humble "Turkish waiter" have in a future vote?
"We must define a new global strategy for enlargement of the union and the surrounding area: membership must not be the only solution proposed to neighbouring countries," said de Villepin, regardless of the EU treaty stipulation that any European state should be allowed to join if its meets the so-called Copenhagen criteria of democracy, human rights and stable institutions.
The proposed debate on enlargement will now have to decide on where exactly Europe's boundary ends, a decision fraught with dangers. For example, the talks to decide the Balkans' future are difficult and often oiled with the lure of EU membership.
There is also the thorny issue of Ukraine and Georgia, two unstable states where the prospect of EU membership has strengthened democratic groups.
However, there is very little appetite for enlargement in old Europe. The debate on migrant workers in Ireland, which has a labour shortage and the fastest growing economy in the EU-15, shows that the concept of a European identity is often not strong enough to persuade people to open their borders.
Fewer than half of Europe's 450 million population now support further enlargement, according to the recent Eurobarometer opinion poll, which also highlights that the 10 most opposed are all part of the original EU-15.
In Salzburg, a city that will welcome two million tourists this year, there is little appetite to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join - a date is set for either 2007 or 2008. One local feared the city would be "swamped" with foreign workers.
So, while the "Sound of Europe" posed many questions, it did not provide answers, except perhaps further proof that future enlargement will be contentious and difficult.
Tories struggle to find new partners in EU
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Published: 01 February 2006
Britain's Conservatives have pledged to defy threats of international isolation and quit Europe's main centre-right group for a new alliance which could include campaigners against gay rights.
After a day of talks in Brussels, William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said there were "initial grounds for encouragement" about creating a new political grouping in the European Parliament. He declined to identify the parties with whom he is negotiating.
The determination of the new Conservative leader, David Cameron, to quit the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) has threatened to reawaken Tory divisions and leave him isolated on the international stage.
Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Nicolas Sarkozy, France's rising political star, made it clear in December they will sever contacts with Mr Cameron if he leaves the EPP-ED. Yesterday Mr Hague said: "We will not change decisions by people threatening us."
He ruled out any new grouping that would include Jean-Marie Le Pen, of the French Front National or Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian wartime dictator.
But he did not exclude an alliance with Poland's Law and Justice Party, which believes in state intervention in industry and advocates the death penalty. Their president, Lech Kaczynski, banned a gay rights march when he was mayor of Warsaw and one Tory MEP yesterday described the party as "homophobic".
Such an alliance could embarrass Mr Cameron who has sought to present the Toriesas being inclusive and tolerant.
To form a new grouping under the European Parliament's rules the Conservatives need to assemble 19 MEPs from five different nations. That should be easy but, to make the group credible, Mr Hague needs to win over another large-ish party.
The most obvious partner is the Czech opposition party the ODS. But they will not consider any realignment before domestic elections in June. Many diplomats believe that, if they win at the polls, they will be reluctant to quit the EPP.
That may explain why Mr Hague yesterday refused to lay down any timetable for the move. "We have said months, not weeks but also we have said months not years," he argued.
That formulation rules out delaying the decision until after the next European elections in 2009.
Other possible allies include Italy's Alleanza Nazionale, Danish Eurosceptics and the Latvian nationalist party the TB/LNNK.
Under a deal negotiated in 1999 the Tories enjoy the financial benefits and political influence of their relationship with the EPP while being semi-detached and not having to obey their whip. Between five and 10 Tory MPs could defy a decision to leave the EPP-ED as they believe it is the closest grouping to the Tories in terms of their free-market outlook.
But about the same number is campaigning against membership of the Christian Democrat alliance arguing it is too federalist.
The absence of 27 Tory MEPs would be a blow to the dominant centre-right group in the Strasbourg assembly, though the formation of a new bloc is unlikely to deprive it of its majority.
Mr Hague said: "We want to ensure there is a new opportunity to put forward ideas for an open, modern, trading, flexible, Europe, and those ideas are different from the ideas on reviving the European constitution and many of the federalist solutions favoured by other parties in the EPP."
Elinda Labropoulou
04 February
Greece has woken up to its own Watergate scandal with the revelation that the mobile phones of the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet and dozens of VIPs were being tapped, from before the 2004 Olympic games until March 2005, when the taps were discovered.
Among those who had their mobile conversations listened in on are the country's most prominent politicians, top military and police officials, several Arab businessmen, the Athens mayor and journalists. It was not the government that discovered the surveillance system but Vodafone, the mobile phone company, whose software was hacked into to set up the tap.
The eavesdropping was made possible when spy software installed in the provider's central offices diverted calls to an array of mobile phones acting as interceptors. The calls were being relayed to unknown destinations via four mobile phone antennas. The antennas cover a zone in Athens that includes the US embassy. But the government has refused to speculate whether foreign agencies were involved. It said it was unable to offer any information as to who the perpetrators may have been. "It was an unknown individual, or individuals, who used high technology," a spokesman said.
2006/01/11
BBC News
The Greek public order minister told MPs there is no truth in claims by 28 Pakistanis that they were kidnapped for interrogation.
The Pakistanis say they were detained after the London bombings, had hoods placed over their heads, and were held for up to seven days without access to a lawyer. Some also claim they were beaten.
The weekly Proto Thema published what it said was the name of a British spy chief and 15 Greek agents involved in the abduction and abuse of the migrants.
2006/01/11
Yahoo! News
Greece's public order minister denied that his services illegally abducted Pakistani immigrants after last year's London bombings.
"No Greek government could resort to masks, hoods and other James Bond-style methods...because our (political system) permits us to meet our goals legally," Voulgarakis told a parliamentary committee, responding to claims by 28 Pakistani immigrants who say they were abducted, interrogated and mishandled by unidentified men posing as Greek police.
Voulgarakis admitted that over 5,000 immigrants were monitored for possible links to the attacks, and that over 2,000 were "legally" interrogated.
The two faces of Islam UK
Horrified by images of fellow Muslims burning embassies in their name, thousands gather in London to stand up for moderation. Meanwhile, links between other London protesters and paramilitary group emerge
By Francis Elliott, Raymond Whitaker and Steve Bloomfield
Published: 12 February 2006
They came, the organisers said, to sound the "legitimate voice" of the Muslim community in Britain. After a week dominated by images of a hook-handed fanatic and placards in praise of the 7 July suicide bombers, it was a day for the moderate majority to stand up and be counted.
The thousands who gathered in Trafalgar Square in London for yesterday's rally did so to protest against both the caricaturing of the Prophet Mohamed and the extremists seeking to exploit the tensions for their own ends.
But as speakers called for unity and mutual tolerance on one side of the police lines, more than 30 trouble-makers, described by a police officer as " NF types", gathered nearby before being moved on.
Caught between the "hotheads" within the community and the racists outside it, Muslim leaders have rarely been under greater pressure as the international storm over the cartoon continues to rage.
While ministers publicly welcome the leaders' new willingness to assert mainstream Islamic values, privately they are warning of yet more sanctions against the radical fringe.
This newspaper has learnt that the Home Office is preparing to force through measures to close down mosques used to foment extremism.
Unveiled initially by Tony Blair in the wake of the 7 July bombings, the plans were dropped just before Christmas by Charles Clarke after an outcry by leading imams.
Now, however, officials are working on a new version of the proposed measure to be driven through unless there is concrete evidence that so-called " preachers of hate" are being denied access to mosques.
The jailing last week of Abu Hamza, who turned the Finsbury Park mosque into a hotbed of extremism, has once again focused attention on the issue. MI5 and Special Branch are drawing up a list of clerics to be forcibly excluded from mosques if self-regulation is ineffective, according to an internal progress report. The document also makes clear that the security services are putting together a hitlist of extremist bookshops connected to jihad-supporting organisations.
A senior Whitehall source said: "The message is very much that it's time to put your house in order. We will not hesitate to act if we don't see that happening in a fairly short period of time."
Gordon Brown, in a speech on terror tomorrow, will reinforce the message that more needs to be done to support the "moderate Muslim voice". But with a series of political battles looming about how to counter home-grown terrorism attention will remain firmly fixed on the other, extreme, face of Islamic Britain.
Nor is the international situation likely to help to reduce tensions as Denmark withdrew diplomats from Iran, Indonesia and Syria yesterday in the face of escalating violence.
Police broke up a riot that erupted in Jerusalem, and the previous day, the Muslim sabbath, saw angry demonstrations in dozens of countries. Police fired on marchers in Kenya, wounding one person, and protesters in Tehran threw firebombs at the French embassy. Eleven people died in Afghanistan last week during confrontations between police and rioters.
But the mystery over how the issue inflamed the Muslim world deepened with the revelation that an Egyptian newspaper had published several of the cartoons last October, less than three weeks after they first appeared in Denmark, without provoking a reaction. El Fagr reprinted the drawing considered most offensive on its front page, along with a highly critical commentary. Yet even though it was Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, it took another three months for the cartoons to spread anger across the Middle East and beyond.
Evan Kohlmann, a consultant to the US government on terrorism and the internet, was in Denmark in September, when the local newspaper Jyllands Posten first published the cartoons. "There was an immediate reaction on the internet - threats, angry rants and discussion of plans to break into Danish websites," he said. "I warned them about it."
But the key event in internationalising the issue appears to have been an emergency summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), held in Mecca midway through December. A group of Danish-based Muslims, angered by the refusal of the Danish government to meet them or to discuss the controversy with ambassadors of Muslim countries, flew to Mecca. They took with them not only the Jyllands Posten cartoons, but much cruder drawings that had been sent to local Muslims, allegedly depicting the Prophet Mohamed as a pig, a paedophile and engaged in bestiality.
Ahmed Akkari, a Lebanese-born Dane who led the group, denied that the more shocking caricatures had been presented as having been published in Denmark. But the BBC said that Mr Akkari, speaking in Arabic on al-Jazeera, had supported a boycott of Danish goods and businesses by Arabs, while telling Danish media he opposed it.
The result of the OIC summit appeared to be official sanction for the campaign in countries such as Iran and Syria. The authorities in Damascus did nothing to stop demonstrators who set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies earlier this month. Several governments in the Middle East, under pressure from the US to democratise, used the issue to demonstrate to their own people what free speech could lead to. But it was also seized upon by their opponents to gain political advantage.
"It was more a symptom than a cause, but the issue exploded in violence in all the most volatile areas of the Muslim world," said Mr Kohlmann.
The chief editors of three privately owned, weekly papers in Yemen are also to stand trial for offending Islam after they published the Danish cartoons. The government also suspended licences for The Yemen Observer, al-Ra'i el-Am and al-Huriya.
Pointing the Finger
Europe has apologized. But attitudes are hardening toward radical groups and governments in the Middle East.
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek International
Feb. 20, 2006 issue - When Hamas called for the Muslim world to calm down last week, European officials hoped they'd turned a corner. They'd been looking frantically for a way out of the clash of civilizations sparked by the publication of cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad.
Bigger than Napoleon
Berlusconi's bizarre show to the start of the election campaign in Rome
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
13 Feburary 2006
By Stefan Ulrich
Only God the Father is still missing. Otherwise the Italian Prime Minister has compared himself with all those who are of rank or fame. Silvio Berlusconi started with an emperor: "Only Napoleon has done more than me. But I am much bigger." He followed up with a war hero: "I will fight against communism like Churchill fought the Nazis." And he referred to the crucified: "I am the Jesus Christ of politics, suffering, I take everything on me, I sacrifice myself for everyone." Is the Prime Minister, after having been in power for five years, ripe for the loony bin? Nothing of the kind. It's just election campaign time in Italy.
Last weekend President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi disbanded Parliament and admonished the politicians to concentrate on the problems in the country in their campaigns for the elections of 9 and 10 April. A pious wish. Because such a businesslike debate can not hold any interest for Berlusconi. Too meagre is his balance as government chief of one of the countries with the weakest economic growth in Europe. So if he can not offer the people bread, at least he will offer them games. Therefore he's been treating the Italians to his antics for weeks now, in countless media appearances.
The always sunbronzed radiant man might promise chastity until the parliamentary elections, only to revoke the promise the next day. Or he warbles a song on the radio that he wrote himself. Another time he'll remark on the looks of his opponent. Just the other day he mocked the leader of the oppositional Democrats of the Left, a man as tall as he is thin, that it might perhaps be better to go into an ossuary than to be in closer contact with this Piero Fassino. The opposition and its top candidate Romano Prodi are having a hard time dealing with the Berlusconi show, because his madness has a method. Like a vampire he sucks up the public attention of the country. Both friend and foe continually talk about the 1 meter 71 tall man who'd like to be great, and who has made his narcissism the obsession of an entire people.
Whether that will pay out in the end, when the votes are counted? The Left, under Prodi, is still ahead in the polls by four to five percent. But the Prime Minister will have long given up on winning over its supporters anyway. What he aims for is to mobilise his own electorate, which is disappointed in his government record but which he hopes to tempt into the voting booth one more time. The more shrill the election campaign gets, the more worked up the opponents become, the better his chances are of succeeding in that. And so Berlusconi goes on with his "Operation Truth" without recitence, with litanies about the supposedly deep-red judges, left-wing journalists and crypto-communist opposition politicians.
This everpresent and hyper-charming salesman of himself is opposed by the Left with, of all people, Romano Prodi - a man of lecturing didactic earnestness and grumpy deliberation. The effect he has on the Italy of the Berlusconi years must be that of the hangover breakfast after a champagne orgy. Indeed, the economist from Bologna has made it his goal to sobre up Italy. He has just presented his programme to the voters - just 300 pages long! It is bursting with recipes to cure the country. "Small corrections will not suffice," Prodi says. "We need radical reforms."
The Professor has admittedly trouble spreading his message. His speech often lacks urgency. When he was the President of the European Commission in Brussels, his opponents mocked that they could barely understand his English. Today even his supporters joke: "We don't understand his Italian either." Moreover, there is scepsis in the country about whether Prodi would be able, as Prime Minister, to keep his coalition of about a dozen parties together. After all, he would have to take on all the social, labour market and public finance reforms that Berlusconi's right-wing government shied away from even in spite of its ample majority - with a coalition ranging from Christian-Democrats to communists.
Prodi argues that he has had the coalition partners sign for their committment to his program. Apart from that, he is hoping that the Italians are too tired to wait another five years for the miracles of Messiah Berlusconi. The Catholic Church has already reacted to his Jesus comparison. Cardinal Ersilio Tonini asked the Prime Minister to "please leave our Father in peace."
Reuters.uk, UK
Feb 16, 2006
The European Parliament (EP) adopted a watered-down bill to open Europe's services market to cross-border competition after a bitter struggle between free marketeers and supporters of social protection.
The European Commission said it would start work on a modified proposal based on the parliament vote.
Services make up more than 60 percent of the EU economy. The bill covers trades as diverse as hairdressing, software engineering and plumbing.
The EP adopted a heavily amended version after voting to remove the disputed "country of origin" principle, under which companies that provide services in another EU state would have been allowed to do so under their home country rules.
As amended, companies will be free to provide services in any EU country but must respect the labour, health, safety and environmental standards of the host country.
"We have turned this directive upside down," said German socialist Evelyne Gebhardt. At least 30,000 trade unionists demonstrated against the bill on Tuesday.
But British conservative Malcolm Harbour said the member states would still have to scrap a raft of restrictive measures that block small business from moving into foreign markets.
In a compromise last week the main parties already excluded public services, temporary work agencies and social services. But the EP voted to include services like water, sewage and waste management in the scope of the liberalisation.
Many conservative deputies from new member states voted against, saying it left too many loopholes to exclude east European companies.
HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT SLAMS FRANCE
From: Agence France-Presse
HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT SLAMS FRANCE
From: Agence France-Presse
February 12, 2006
A MAJOR Council of Europe report to be released this week contains a stinging 200-page indictment of France's record on human rights.
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