The European Economic Community (EEC) has expressed “regret” over Israel’s settlement policy, and reiterated its commitment to the 1980 Venice Declaration which called for associating the PLO with the peace process in the Middle East. But it stopped short of formulating new ideas or launching initiatives of its own concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict.
After a day-long meeting of the EEC Foreign Ministers on Tuesday, Hans-Dietrich Genscher of West Germany told a press conference here that the next European summit on March 22 will take another look at the conflict with a view to publishing a statement according to the situation which will then exist. But he again reiterated that no independent European initiative is planned, but rather a document based on previous positions, notably the Venice Declaration.
Genscher also said that the European ministers hoped that the results of the PLO-National Council meeting last week in Algiers would help to broaden the peace process.
But asked whether the ministers decided to take any new steps toward the PLO he said there was no need for steps going behind what was already included in the Venice Declaration on this specific point. Genscher described as the main problem in the conflict the need for the Palestinians to exercise their right for self-determination.
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