Prime Ministers of Spain, Belgium, Ireland and Malta have called on European Council President Charles Michel to hold a “serious debate” this week on the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to Politico.
“We must call urgently for all the parties to declare a lasting humanitarian cease-fire that can lead to an end of hostilities. It is time for the European Union to act. Our credibility is at stake.”
This week’s European Council summit will focus more on Ukraine as the EU hopes to make a historic decision to launch talks on Kyiv’s accession to the bloc and strike a key budget deal that would provide a €50bn lifeline for the war-weakened country.
We call on your leadership to steer such a discussion, which should aim at agreeing on a clear and firm position by the European Union.
The EU has so far struggled to reach a common vision on the Middle East conflict. However, the current version of the draft conclusions of the upcoming leaders’ summit does not yet include a paragraph on the Gaza Strip, showing the complicated nature of harmonising this issue between the 27 capitals.
At the previous meeting of EU leaders in October, they agreed to call for a “humanitarian pause” in the Middle East.
One EU official stated that the letter sent by the prime ministers to Charles Michel was likely to further complicate the debate, given how much controversy the conflict has already managed to cause between member states.
