CAIRO, 8 February 2005 — The European Union will seek Israeli guarantees that it will not destroy Palestinian infrastructure built with new EU aid, External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said yesterday.
“We do not want our investment to be destroyed,” she told reporters in Cairo, the first stop of a Middle East tour.
The EU would consider financing reconstruction of a seaport and an airport in Gaza but wanted to be sure that these projects would be sustainable.
“There are huge challenges that are there, but for that also we need some guarantees from the Israeli side,” she said. The Israelis destroyed an airport built in Gaza in the 1990s, after the start of a Palestinian uprising more than four years ago.
Ferrero-Waldner said she would travel on to Israel and the Palestinian territories for meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
She said the European Union was willing to increase its aid to the Palestinians to build on the recent calm between Israelis and Palestinians and the revival of peace talks.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders will meet in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh today for the first time in four years. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdallah of Jordan will also be there.
But for major EU aid to the Palestinians, Ferrero-Waldner said the conditions must be right, including the free movement of goods between Israel and the Palestinian territories.
She said Abbas had acted quickly to improve security by deploying more Palestinian forces.
“Mahmoud Abbas has shown leadership in a very few moments already but he has to go on, he has to consolidate,” she added.
