Common front in the European Parliament against the Peace Council initiated by Trump. “We urge Ursula von der Leyen to clearly distance herself”

The leaders of the groups of social democrats, liberals and greens in the European Parliament asked the European Commission on Friday to distance itself from the Peace Council created by the American president Donald Trump and whose constitutive meeting was also attended by a European commissioner as an observer the previous day in Washington, despite the protests expressed by some MEPs and several EU member states, EFE and Agerpres report.

“We urge the President of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) to clearly distance herself from Donald Trump's Peace Council, not to send observers and to stop any form of participation. The Commission must focus its political and diplomatic efforts on genuine multilateral work that will strengthen rather than fragment international peace efforts,” the leaders of the respective European political groups state in a joint letter.

In this letter, distributed on social networks, the leader of the Social Democrats, Iratxe Garcia, that of the liberal group Renew, Valerie Hayer, and the co-presidents of the Greens, Terry Reintke and Bas Eickhout, criticized the participation of the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, at the event hosted by Trump in Washington on Thursday, qualifying this participation as a “serious error of judgment from an institutional, legal and political perspective”.

“There is clearly a political problem: participation in an inaugural event sends a strong signal of support, regardless of the intentions expressed. However, in the current geopolitical context, this symbolism can be interpreted as a rejection of the EU's commitment to multilateralism and rules-based diplomacy”, consider the leaders of the respective progressive political groups in the European Parliament.

According to them, the European Commission must “be subject to a high standard of institutional discipline precisely because its actions shape the perception of the European Union as a whole”, although the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean attended the meeting in Washington without a mandate from the European governments.

Commissioner Dubravka Suica's participation in this “politically questionable diplomatic initiative” also undermines the institutional balance, the signatories of the letter also accuse. “Giving implicit visibility and legitimacy to this initiative weakens the authority of the UN, which remains the primary framework for mediation, humanitarian coordination and internationally recognized peace processes,” they added.

The European Commission on Thursday motivated the participation of the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean at the first meeting of the Peace Council created by American President Donald Trump by the fact that she wants “to be at the table”, not just to be a donor of humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, thus responding to the criticism already expressed by socialist MEPs.

But countries such as Spain, France or Slovenia have in turn criticized the European Commission for participating in the Peace Council meeting, even if it was only as an observer.

The Peace Council was created by Trump to oversee the peace process in the Gaza Strip and to resolve global conflicts outside the UN framework, an institution that he criticizes for its lack of efficiency.

Most of the founding members are allies of the Republican president, while major powers and most European countries have expressed reservations about Trump's Peace Council, saying it draws parallels with the UN. President Nicușor Dan went to Washington, to the first meeting of the Council, as an observer.