Implementation of the common foreign and security policy – annual report 2023

Tabled by Pedro Marques, Tonino Picula, Thijs Reuten

… EU strategy for contributing to stability and peace in the Middle East; Added: takes note with concern of the recent allegations made by Israel against 12 staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); welcomes the UN’s immediate and determined response to the allegations, including the immediate dismissal of the employees in question and the launching of two separate investigations into the matter by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and the independent review group led by former French Minister Catherine Colonna and three European organisations; calls on Israel, in this regard, to cooperate closely and provide all necessary evidence to the OIOS and the independent review group; welcomes the Commission’s decision not to suspend funding to UNRWA before the UN has announced the outcome of the investigations and the actions it will take; urges all donor countries which have suspended their funding to UNRWA owing to the allegations to reconsider their decision in the light of UNRWA’s immediate response to the allegations and its crucial role of delivering life-saving assistance to the two million people in the Gaza Strip who depend on it for their survival amid one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE756.724