EU parliament vice-president to head Mid-East inquiry

A senior UK MEP has been appointed to lead a parliamentary investigation into the current crisis in the Middle East.

Edward McMillan-Scott will head an inquiry into the international handling of the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

He said he hopes the move will add “democratic legitimacy” to former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s task in the region.

Conservative deputy McMillan-Scott, a vice-president of the parliament and longest-serving member of its foreign affairs committee, has been asked to explore ways in which parliamentarians can contribute to a settlement.

He said,  “The task for parliamentarians on both sides of the Mediterranean is to discover the roots of the Middle East tensions and find a democratic way forward.

“This conflict has caused thousands of deaths in the region and inspires terrorism worldwide.

“I am neither pro-Arab nor pro-Israeli: I am in favour of parliamentary democracy, and so are most people in the region."

McMillan-Scott, vice-president responsible for the EuroMed, was appointed by the EuroMed parliamentary assembly to produce a report for debate next March.

The assembly was established in 1995 and brings together 120 parliamentarians from the southern Mediterranean and 120 from the EU, 75 national MPs and 45 MEPs.

It is the only such body in which Israel and Palestine are both represented.
The MEP believes the Quartet of Middle East mediators – the US, UN, Russia and EU – is discredited and that is why Mr Blair was appointed to give the process some momentum.

McMillan-Scott also thinks it is time to fully involve the 22-nation Arab League.

"The problem is that governments have yet to find a way of addressing the rising tide of Islamic radicalism, which enjoys much street-level support from the Middle East to North Africa, and so far through the ballot box in Palestine.

“The support will only grow unless 'normal politics' replace extremism,” he said.

"The democratic dilemma was badly handled by the international community when it ignored the Islamic Salvation Front's win in the1992 Algerian elections, and again after the Hamas win last January.”

McMillan-Scott chaired the largest-ever parliamentary election observer missions - 30 Euro-MPs - to the Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections in 2005 and 2006.

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