News Releases

Benita Ferrero-Waldner

No. 103/05
November 15, 2005

EU WELCOMES ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AGREEMENT ON GAZA BORDER CROSSING

Today, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner welcomed the agreement reached by Israelis and Palestinians on the Gaza border crossing, saying, "I welcome the significant breakthrough reached this morning in Jerusalem and congratulate in particular the Quartet [Mideast Quartet: EU, US, UN and Russia] Special Envoy, James Wolfensohn, on his unstinting efforts. This opens the way to much-needed greater mobility for Palestinians and with EU presence they will now be able to manage the border between Gaza and Egypt. The European Commission is already active in capacity building on border issues and in supporting the modernisation of the Palestinian customs services. A €40 million infrastructure facility was launched during my visit to the region last week. And I hope it will soon also be possible to unblock €25 million, which I have earmarked for building a new cargo terminal for the Gaza airport. The EU stands ready to further support the agreement reached today with a range of measures, which respond to requests from the Israelis and the Palestinians."

For further information, please visit:
http://www.eurunion.org/newsweb/HotTopics.htm#mideast.

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