Meet Christian Berger: Responsible for the EU Settlement Guidelines

  • 0

Syria is disintegrating, Egypt is collapsing, Iran is on evasive maneuvers, but Israeli settlements are preventing Europe from sleeping well at night.

It is rather embarrassing to see former great empires conspiring together today like some beacon of morality. When they have no ability to influence, they choose the second option, which is to get in the way. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s (welcome) initiative was joined this week by Europe’s (obstructive) initiative.

The Europeans’ inferiority complex is what caused a small group of clerks in Brussels to formulate a complex legal document, which determines that future agreements with Israel will not apply beyond the 1967 lines.

The report was compiled in the European Commission’s Middle East department headed by Christian Berger, an Austrian diplomat who for the past few years was the EU envoy in the Palestinian territories. That is also, presumably, where he learned to be objective.

Berger does not understand how grand old Europe is unable to cast influence on the most important conflict in the world. He is surely wondering how the EU, which gives so much money to the region, does not receive anything in return. “We want to influence, not just spend,” he is probably saying to himself. He is forgetting, however, that Israel does not only receive, but also pays partner fees for research and development projects. It is the other side which only receives money.

The report goes much farther than the 2012 declaration by EU foreign ministers upon which it is based. The EU ministers at the time took a very abstract position, which Berger is translating into practical, operative, and legal terms. It is no surprise that several European capitals yesterday could not understand what all the fuss in Jerusalem was about.

On Monday, the EU’s foreign ministers are expected to meet again. The Czech Republic, Holland, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania are likely to question whether this was a smart move considering Kerry’s current push in the region. In contrast, countries like Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Austria and Spain are expected to welcome the policy.

Christian Berger decided to solve “the occupation problem.” We can suggest to him that on Monday he also take a swing at solving Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus; Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara; the Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan that is occupied by Armenia; Russia, which is occupying South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia; the Japanese-occupied Coral Islands; not to mention the significant Russian settlement between Poland and Latvia, known as Kaliningrad.

We also have not forgotten Russia’s military occupation in portions of the Finnish Karelia province. And China occupies Tibet and Indonesia occupies West Papua, and Pakistan refuses to accept Indian sovereignty in Kashmir.

We have yet to mention the issues that the EU does find interesting: The Falkland Islands (British) dispute with Argentina; the problems in New Caledonia (France); British control of Gibraltar on Spanish soil; the residents of Greenland, who seek independence from Denmark; and also Morocco’s frustration at Spain, which controls two cities on Moroccan soil, Ceuta and Melia, as if Morocco was still part of Spain.

Meanwhile, we are the only ones to have received Christian Berger’s report.

Meet Christian Berger: Responsible for the EU Settlement Guidelines

  • 0