The European Union is preparing itself for the possibility of doing business with Hamas after this month’s Palestinian elections, even though the group is on the EU’s list of banned terrorist organisations.
On a visit to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank this week, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for external relations, emphasised the EU would not take sides in the January 25 vote, in which Hamas is mounting a strong challenge to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.
The EU is unlikely to cut funding automatically if Hamas emerges as part of the Palestinian government after the elections, an outcome many observers consider possible. “We have been a consistent, and reliable partner for both sides [in the Israel-Palestinian conflict],” she said. “We will continue to offer our support to all those who seek peace by peaceful means.”
Some Fatah politicians had previously seized upon an incomplete version of comments made by Javier Solana, the EU governments’ foreign policy representative, to warn their constituents that a vote for Hamas would mean less international funding.
The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority and is considering doubling its annual aid of €500m ($605m, £343m) in coming years. As the official in charge of the European Commission’s external relations budget the biggest single component of EU aid, Ms Ferrero-Waldner’s opinion is particularly important.
At present, she has frozen the EU’s direct budgetary assistance for the PA because of its failure to get expenditure on salaries under control.
The EU stance contrasts with the more strident position of the US which has insisted that the elections give the Palestinian people a fundamental choice between supporting organisations such as Hamas and participating in a peaceful process.
However, President George W. Bush’s high-profile backing for democratisation in the Arab world means the US administration would face a dilemma on how to proceed if Hamas receives the votes of a sizeable proportion of the electorate.
In practical terms, the EU could maintain contacts with a PA that included Hamas if it respected democratic procedures and did not breach basic commitments such as the 1993 Oslo peace deal for Israel-Palestine. Mr Abbas argues that by participating in the elections, Hamas has implicitly accepted Oslo, although Hamas itself, which refuses to renounce its conflict with Israel, disputes this.
The EU has already been in contact with Hamas candidates as part of its role as an official observer of the Palestinian elections, but says this has been strictly limited to issues connected to the vote.
However, some EU officials talked to Hamas members through informal and hence deniable channels in the past and were always unhappy about the decision to put the group on the terrorist list, a move championed by Israel and the US. EU foreign ministers have consistently refused to take a similar step for Hizbollah, the Islamist Shia organisation that forms part of the Lebanese government.
Their worry is that heavy handed actions by the EU could prove counterproductive, pushing Hamas further from the political mainstream – a conclusion endorsed on Wednesday by the International Crisis Group, a think-tank in Brussels.
“With the prospect as remote as ever of a renewed peace process or a weakened Palestinian Authority cracking down on a strengthened Hamas, the international community’s best remaining option is to maximise the Islamist movement’s incentives to move in a political direction through a policy of gradual, conditional engagement,” the report says.
On a visit to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank this week, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for external relations, emphasised the EU would not take sides in the January 25 vote, in which Hamas is mounting a strong challenge to President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.
The EU is unlikely to cut funding automatically if Hamas emerges as part of the Palestinian government after the elections, an outcome many observers consider possible. “We have been a consistent, and reliable partner for both sides [in the Israel-Palestinian conflict],” she said. “We will continue to offer our support to all those who seek peace by peaceful means.”
Some Fatah politicians had previously seized upon an incomplete version of comments made by Javier Solana, the EU governments’ foreign policy representative, to warn their constituents that a vote for Hamas would mean less international funding.
The EU is the biggest donor to the Palestinian Authority and is considering doubling its annual aid of €500m ($605m, £343m) in coming years. As the official in charge of the European Commission’s external relations budget the biggest single component of EU aid, Ms Ferrero-Waldner’s opinion is particularly important.
At present, she has frozen the EU’s direct budgetary assistance for the PA because of its failure to get expenditure on salaries under control.
The EU stance contrasts with the more strident position of the US which has insisted that the elections give the Palestinian people a fundamental choice between supporting organisations such as Hamas and participating in a peaceful process.
However, President George W. Bush’s high-profile backing for democratisation in the Arab world means the US administration would face a dilemma on how to proceed if Hamas receives the votes of a sizeable proportion of the electorate.
In practical terms, the EU could maintain contacts with a PA that included Hamas if it respected democratic procedures and did not breach basic commitments such as the 1993 Oslo peace deal for Israel-Palestine. Mr Abbas argues that by participating in the elections, Hamas has implicitly accepted Oslo, although Hamas itself, which refuses to renounce its conflict with Israel, disputes this.
The EU has already been in contact with Hamas candidates as part of its role as an official observer of the Palestinian elections, but says this has been strictly limited to issues connected to the vote.
However, some EU officials talked to Hamas members through informal and hence deniable channels in the past and were always unhappy about the decision to put the group on the terrorist list, a move championed by Israel and the US. EU foreign ministers have consistently refused to take a similar step for Hizbollah, the Islamist Shia organisation that forms part of the Lebanese government.
Their worry is that heavy handed actions by the EU could prove counterproductive, pushing Hamas further from the political mainstream – a conclusion endorsed on Wednesday by the International Crisis Group, a think-tank in Brussels.
“With the prospect as remote as ever of a renewed peace process or a weakened Palestinian Authority cracking down on a strengthened Hamas, the international community’s best remaining option is to maximise the Islamist movement’s incentives to move in a political direction through a policy of gradual, conditional engagement,” the report says.
