The European Union goes to next week's Middle East peace conference in the U.S. ready to back up an agreement with financial aid, recognizing that without giving Palestinians hope for improved living standards, a political settlement will remain out of reach.
The EU, which will be represented by its key Mideast envoys and a number of foreign ministers, is expected, however, to take a back seat to the United States in the diplomatic drive to restart a peace process between Israeli and the Palestinians.
The conference takes place Monday through Wednesday in Annapolis, Maryland, and Washington.
"The European Union is a bit on the sidelines for this process. The idea is for the United States to get the two key players together," said Alfred Pijpers, a senior researcher at the Clingendael Netherlands Institute for International Relations.
"The European Union will be of great help for financing, and technical assistance and investments and so on, but as far as the direct, so-called peace process is concerned, at this moment I don't see a very immediate and direct activity from the EU side," he said by telephone from Amsterdam on Wednesday.
The EU is the Palestinians' largest aid donor. In 2007, the EU and its 27 member nations gave close to euro1 billion (US$1.48 billion), most of it in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians who now live under rival governments in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
This week, the EU foreign ministers endorsed steps to support any peace moves emerging from the Annapolis conference, which will also be attended by delegations from Arab nations. The steps were outlined in a report written by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external relations commissioner, and Javier Solana, the EU security affairs chief.
The report makes clear EU aid will be made available for practical purposes: money and technical assistance to boost the Palestinian police force and to reform the Palestinians' health, education and judiciary departments.
Also on offer from the EU is yet unspecified economic assistance aimed at stoking economic growth while continuing humanitarian aid to both West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians. While it continues to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, the EU maintains an economic boycott of the Hamas militants who control the coastal strip.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the Annapolis talks would be supported by a drive to raise a US$500 million (euro337million) aid package aimed at creating new jobs for the Palestinians, if security can be improved.
He said the aid package would be tied to political progress in Annapolis and to pledges of support made during a donor conference scheduled to be held next month in Paris.
"Levels of poverty and unemployment in Gaza and the West Bank are intolerable, and we are ready to do what we can to help the people in these areas," Brown told Parliament in London.
Both Ferrero-Waldner and Solana will attend the Annapolis conference, along with the foreign ministers of Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey and other European nations. Former EU Mideast envoy, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, will also attend.
EU spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said the "elaboration of future EU aid will depend" on the outcome of the Annapolis conference.
In the EU view, an improved Palestinian economy will contribute to Israel's security.
International Mideast envoy Tony Blair expressed that view on Monday in announcing four economic projects designed to create Palestinian jobs.
"Without hope of prosperity, rising living standards, and an economic stake in the future for ordinary Palestinians, the politics will never succeed," the former British prime minister said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
Blair, who serves as the representative for the "Quartet" of Mideast peacemakers _ the U.S. U.N., EU and Russia _ has also been invited to the Annapolis talks.
The Europeans will be looking for others _ notably the Arab League and its member countries _ to join them in stepping forward with economic and other aid at the donor conference in Paris.
EU nations welcomed the news that the meeting was going ahead.
"The Annapolis conference gives hope, hope for a better tomorrow for the Palestinian and the Israeli people. It is a substantial step for which many have worked and are working," said Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos.
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Associated Press writers Paul Ames in Brussels, David Stringer in London and Elena Becatoros in Athens contributed to this report.
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