Eduardo González
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares confessed this Friday that he was “hurt” by the presence of the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, at the first formal meeting of the Peace Board, the body promoted by US President Donald Trump to monitor the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“It hurt me to see a European Union commissioner there, who shouldn’t have been, even as an observer,” Albares stated during his participation in the “Europe, and now what?” series at the Palau Macaya, organized in Barcelona by Amics del País and moderated by former MP Miquel Roca Junyent.
On January 22nd, Donald Trump presented the so-called “Peace Board” at the Davos Forum, which has been joined by, among others, Israel, Morocco, Hungary, Bulgaria, Argentina, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kosovo, and the United Arab Emirates. With the exception of Hungary and Bulgaria, no other EU country has joined the initiative or attended the presentation.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced that same day in Brussels that Spain had “decided not to participate in the so-called Peace Board for the sake of consistency.” The governments of France and Ireland have also expressed their displeasure at the Commissioner’s presence at the meeting without prior consultation with the other EU member states.
Albares recalled, in this regard, that the EU has an official position in favor of the two-state solution and, therefore, “cannot participate in a meeting of a body that does not have one of the parties, the Palestinian Authority, represented.” She also recalled the “unequivocal” position of Spain and France, among other countries, against the Peace Board, considering that it undermines the role of the United Nations.
Last Monday, Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho stated that Dubravka Šuica’s participation reflects Brussels’ intention to “strengthen everything that has been done in favor of Gaza from the beginning.”
Regarding consultations with member states, Pinho explained that the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, is in contact with the ministers and clarified that, although the Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, was invited, she would not be attending, and Šuica would be attending “on behalf of the Commission.”
The spokesperson added that the EU is not assuming the role of a member of the Peace Board, but rather that the Commissioner would act as the Commissioner for the Mediterranean, representing the European commitment to peace in Gaza and highlighting the EU’s contribution to the region.
