"Faith and values in Europe – 70 years after Kristallnacht"

European Parliament, Brussels, 11 November, 2008

Here is the conference report from the 5th Annual Policy Conference in Brussels on 11 November, 2008. Please note that the content of this report does not necessarily reflect the views of the ECI but that of the respective speaker.

Helmut Specht, Chairman of the European Coalition for Israel (2007-2010)

Mr Specht welcomed the participants to the Annual Policy Conference with the theme "70 years after Kristallnacht". The date of the Kristallnacht was the 9th of November, 1938. The 11th of
November, the date of this conference, also marks the end of the First Word War in 1918. The issue of this Annual Conference is to discuss anti-Semitism in the past and today and to get the guidelines as to what to do now. Mr Specht mentioned incidents in England and Germany, which show the sad fact that there is anti-Semitism in Europe today. Our obligation, Mr Specht said, is to do something and make things known in the churches, in the economy and in the politics, both on national and European level.

“Promoting the reform process in the Middle East – what role can the European Union play? ”

European Parliament, Brussels, 19-20 September 2006

Summary:
Here is the conference report from the 4th Annual Policy Conference in Brussels on September 19-20, 2006. As conferences in the past have been much appreciated by the participants a request has been made to make the content available also for a wider audience. This is an attempt to spread the message from this year´s conference. Please note that the content of this report does not necessarily reflect the views of the ECI but that of the respective speaker.

The report mostly consists of brief summaries except for one intervention where we have been given the speech in its complete written form. As there are several people involved in compiling this report also the style of reporting will vary. On one occasion we have been asked not to reveal the identity of a speaker due to the sensitive issues raised in his speech. Helsinki 1 November 2006 Tomas Sandell, Conference organiser

10.00 EU and the Middle East – A Partnership for Reform?

Mr Child started his speech by conveying his regards from the European Commissioner for External Affairs and European Neighborhood policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner who was unable to attend the conference due to her obligations at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York the same day.Mr Childs saw many promising signs in the Middle East. The current misery has increased the need for a comprehensive peace deal. There is a mood of optimism among European ministers that the European Union can play a leading role in the region. This is a moment of opportunity to raise the profile of the EU in the region and promote the democratic process, he said.

Here you can download Dr. Jürgen Bühler's report on ”European Leadership Funding, Investing for Peace in the Middle East”.

Abstract
The European Union and its member states represent the largest single donor bloc financing the Palestinian Authority and its affiliated institutions. We believe that European taxpayers’ money was and probably still is being channelled to the PA and its affiliates in ways that contradict core EU principles, contributing to the prevailing culture of corruption and incitement whilst failing to address the underlying causes of Palestinian poverty. We note recent efforts by the Commission to begin to address many of the issues outlined in this paper and propose an alternative funding model, which we believe is more in line with interests and values of the European Union as a whole.