Last minute meetings between 27 on Palestine in New York

(BRUSSELS2) The 27 EU foreign ministers are due to meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Tuesday to try to determine a common position and try to safeguard unity, undermined by the draft declaration of Palestinian recognition. A meeting to be held against a background of confabulations in all directions. Following the American policy of conciliation, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs is increasing informal contacts. Catherine Ashton must thus meet again Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the representatives of the Arab League and of course his alter ego members of the Quartet.

United on nothing but the desire to be united

European unity is on everyone's lips: everyone agrees on that. But when we enter the bottom of the positions, the divergences are displayed. Barring a last gasp, the 27 will indeed be in dispersed order at the time of the vote, having still not succeeded in agreeing on this question which has deeply divided Europe for several decades (Read: The Middle East on the program of the Gymnich of Sopot). Among the members of the Security Council: Germany is against, Portugal is for, while France and the United Kingdom - which have the right of veto - have not publicly stated their position. In the rest of the Member States, we find a similar divide: Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the Rep. Czechs are against this proclamation while Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Sweden are on the Palestinian side. Cyprus is the only EU state to have already recognized the Palestinian state within its 1967 borders. Several countries (France, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden) are however campaigning for a median option , namely a non-member State observer status, identical to that of the Vatican.