By NNN-KUNA
Brussels : President of the European Parliament (EP) Hans-Gert Poettering has criticized the Israeli settlement policies.
“We will of course protect the right of Israel to defend itself but we cannot allow for settlements to go on being built willy-nilly. We do not want the Annapolis process to be hijacked this way, that we end dividing the Palestinian territory into so many safety zones,” he told a press conference here Thursday evening after delivering a speech to the EU summit.
He said the EP wants to play a greater role because “we have to provide the funding which is invested in the Middle East.”
Poettering said the EP wants to ensure that the money invested is “invested well and not end up in the situation where what is created are destroyed through military action”.
On March 25, the EP’s Working Group on the Middle East will discuss, with the Follow-up Group set up at the Paris International Donors’ Conference, which includes French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store, EU Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the Special Representative of the Quartet, Tony Blair, just how effectively EP’s aid is getting through to the people in need on the spot.