As is the custom during each Presidency, a delegation of the Parliamentary Association for Euro-Arab Cooperation (PAEAC) met the President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, Irish Foreign Minister Dick SPRING, in Dublin on 9 October 1996. The delegation comprised the two co-chairmen of the Association, Sir Robert HICKS (UK) and Henning GJELLEROD MP (Denmark), the co-chairmen of its Irish section, Senator Michael LANIGAN and Michael FERRIS TD, and its Secretary General, Jean-Michel DUMONT.

The discussion mainly focussed on the means to relaunch the Middle East Peace Process and the implementation of the agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

After an exchange of views on the recent visit of Mr SPRING in the region, the members of parliament discussed with the Irish Presidency the possibility to suspend the "Interim Agreement between the European Community and the State of Israel" which anticipates since 1st January 1996 the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement with Israel still waiting for ratification by the majority of the 17* parliaments concerned. The interim agreement anticipating its implementation has been concluded by the Council, the Commission and Israel at the end of 1995 in order to encourage Israel to make progress in the peace process.
___________
* The 15 national parliaments of the EU member states, the European Parliament and the Knesset. The European Parliament, and the parliaments of Austria and Sweden have already ratified.