The European Parliament supports the turn of the European Commission towards Israel. The Eurocamara has approved this Thursday a resolution in which she supports the proposals that the president of the Community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, launched this Wednesday to suspend the commercial part of the association agreement with Israel and the sanctions against the extremist ministers. The text, which has come forward with 305 votes in favor, 151 against and 122 abstentions, is particularly symbolic to pronounce on the announcement and not on the proposal of Von der Leyen, which will have to arrive later.
The resolution approved this Thursday, and the one that has added the European Popular Party (PPE, the formation of Von der Leyen), includes the word genocide, but in a very descriptive way and not in its own mouth. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Eurocamara says that Israel’s siege in the strip is causing a genocide, since he remembers that there is an open case in the International Court of Justice, under the UN, after the demand for South Africa.
The joint resolution proposal had been presented this Wednesday to try to combine the seven that were raised last Monday. That is, all parliamentary groups except that of sovereign nations Europe, in which alternative is integrated by Germany and that could be considered the most to the right of a European Parliament already very chosen towards that side of the political spectrum.
PPE turn
The joint statement sought to combine the positions of the groups that are more to the center: the renew liberals, the greens, socialists and democrats and the PPE. However, this last group, the major of Europarliament, did not sign it.
The groups that are part of the moderate coalition in the European Parliament have been negotiating during the previous days, according to sources known to these conversations. These sources also point out that the European Popular Party got off the pact.
The Cariz of some of the amendments that had presented to the text of Socialists, Liberals and Greens and then withdrawn announced, however, a will to keep the door open to support the text. In these amendments, the conservatives proposed to withdraw the descriptive reference of the original text to open investigation in the International Court of Justice for Genocide or the conviction of Israeli obstruction to the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Parliamentary sources explain that the PPE returned to the negotiations after listening to the speech of Von der Leyen, in which he turned the position held so far. They also explain that the president would not have previously informed several delegations of the conservative group, a political family to which she belongs, of her change hardening the position of the commission over Israel for her siege in Gaza.
(Last minute news. There will be update shortly)
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