A proposal that the European Community administer the West Bank and Gaza Strip under a United Nations mandate is making the rounds of diplomatic circles here, but so far there has been no official reaction from the E.C. foreign ministers.
The idea was floated by Bettino Craxi, leader of Italy’s Socialist Party, as a transition measure pending a settlement of the Israeli-Arab dispute.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti relayed it to his 11 colleagues Tuesday at a meeting of the E.C. Council of Ministers in Luxembourg. He stressed that the proposal has not been formally adopted by the Italian government.
The Socialists are members of the recently formed five-party coalition government in Italy headed by Premier Ciriaco de Mita, a Christian Democrat.
Craxi’s formula is aimed at easing the tension in the Israeli-administered territories and giving the European Community a direct role in Middle East affairs. But observers in Luxembourg doubt it could ever be implemented in the face of expected opposition from Israel.
Meanwhile, snags are developing over the scheduled meeting of the E.C.-Israel Cooperation Council here on May 24. The council is the ministerial body that monitors the trade and financial agreements between Israel and the 12 E.C. member states.
Spain, Italy and Greece have expressed reservations over the meeting unless Israel agrees to include political issues on the agenda. They want to discuss such issues as the unrest in the administered territories, prospects for an international peace conference and the assassination of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s second in command, Khalil al-Wazir in Tunis April 18. His killers are widely believed to have been Israelis.
According to Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher of West Germany, current chairman of the E.C. Council of Ministers, if Israel agrees to discuss these issues, the meeting of the Cooperation Council certainly will take place.
Avraham Tamir, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, who is in Brussels to prepare for next month’s meeting, tackled another source of friction between Israel and the European Community.
Tamir met Wednesday with the European Parliament’s Foreign Economic Relations Committee to discuss the problem of direct Palestinian farm exports to the E.C. countries.
Israel’s past insistence on controlling those exports was one of the reasons why the Strasbourg-based European Parliament, the E.C.’s legislative body, refused to ratify three economic and trade accords Israel signed with the E.C. countries last year.
But apparently the matter has been resolved. Claude Cheysson of France, the E.C.’s commissioner for Mediterranean affairs, informed the committee that he has received a satisfactory memorandum from Israel.
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