Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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55. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the degree to which the EU continues to maintain a positive influence in the Middle East with particular reference to the Israeli Palestine peace process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3897/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland, along with our EU partners, supports the achievement of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. This support includes political efforts to encourage a resumption of direct negotiations, which are ultimately the only way to achieve peace. It also includes action on the ground on human rights and justice issues affecting Palestinians under occupation, including settlement activity, which are progressively endangering the prospects of such a peace agreement. During my recent working visit to Israel and Palestine, I met with both President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as other representatives of the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and discussed with them reinvigorating the effort towards peace in the Middle East. In these meetings, I expressed Ireland’s and the EU’s willingness to support US efforts to re-launch negotiations. It is, of course, important that any parameters which are advanced actually provide a basis on which both parties could agree, and for this reason the EU has long been committed to a two-state solution, using 1967 borders as a basis, and with Jerusalem as a capital for both states.

In discussions on the Middle East Peace Process with my EU colleagues, most recently at the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, I have supported continuing EU efforts to encourage an appropriate US initiative. I also believe that the EU must continue our own work, including work on the ground to help preserve and create the political and physical space for a two state solution, and to alleviate the impact of the occupation on ordinary Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. I am actively exploring with EU colleagues how this can best be done.

During an informal lunch with President Abbas after the Council, my colleagues and I reiterated the EU’s unified position on the need to preserve a two-state solution, and the status of Jerusalem as future capital of two states.