The European Commission is sending a commissioner to the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council launched by Donald Trump. Brussels participates as an observer
The European Union and the United States. Credit: Georges Gobet / AFP / Profimedia
A European commissioner will participate this week in the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council, an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump, without the European Union joining the new structure for the time being, the European bloc announced on Monday, AFP and Reuters report.
The European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, will travel to Washington for the meeting scheduled for Thursday, to present the European position on the situation in the Gaza Strip, notes Agerpres.
“She will participate in the meeting of the Peace Council for the specific part devoted to Gaza. The European Commission, I want to emphasize, does not become a member of the Peace Council,” said Guillaume Mercier, spokesman for the European Commission for the Mediterranean, enlargement, and international partnerships.
The peace council, led by Trump, was designed to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, but its charter entrusts it with a broader goal, that of resolving the world's military conflicts.
Each permanent member of the Peace Council must pay $1 billion to join, prompting criticism that the new structure could become a “paid” version of the UN Security Council.
In a press conference on Monday, Brussels stressed that it had “a number of questions” about the new initiative, particularly “its scope, its governance and compatibility with the United Nations Charter”.
And Romania will have the status of observer
And Romania, through President Nicușor Dan, will participate as an observer at the first meeting of the Peace Council.
“Next week I will participate in the first meeting of the Peace Council in Washington, responding to the invitation of the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump. Romania will have observer status and I will reaffirm our firm support for international peace efforts and the openness to participate in the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip,” Nicușor Dan said on his Facebook page.
Romania's participation in this meeting of the Peace Council in Washington has so far been called into question. The head of state declared on Thursday, February 12, that Romania is still holding talks with the American side.
A similar decision was announced yesterday by Italy.
Nicușor Dan goes to Trump's Peace Council: “Romania will have observer status”
What is the Peace Council established by Trump
According to the eight-page text sent a few weeks ago to states invited to participate, “The Peace Council is an international organization aimed at promoting stability, restoring reliable and legitimate governance and guaranteeing lasting peace in regions affected by or threatened by conflict.”
The text insists, among other things, on “the need for a more agile and effective international peace organization”.
Donald Trump will be the “first president” of the Peace Council, whose envisaged powers are extremely extensive: he will be the only one empowered to “invite” other heads of state and government to join the initiative and will be able to revoke the participation in the event of a “veto by a two-thirds majority of member states”.
Each state exercises a mandate with a maximum duration of three years, with the exception of member states that transfer at least 1 billion dollars to the accounts of the Peace Council in the first year following the entry into force of the Charter, the text also mentioned, without making any other details.
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