EU ministers meet amid divisions over Palestinian aid

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00:00 Let's get an update on what we heard from that press conference.

00:03 Dave Keating is our EU correspondent.

00:05 He's live with me right now.

00:07 Dave, there's been a lot of confusion as to what the European Union's policy is when it

00:13 comes to aid to the Palestinians.

00:15 Did we get any clarity following this press conference this afternoon?

00:23 We didn't hear anything from Joseph Borrell.

00:25 We know Joseph Borrell's position on this.

00:27 He said last night that he thinks it would be a bad idea to suspend aid.

00:32 He said it would be counter to the EU's strategic interests and it would be a form of collective

00:37 punishment against all Palestinians for the actions of Hamas.

00:42 The question is whether this was ever really an EU policy.

00:45 What we just heard from a European Commission spokesperson about an hour ago is the Commission

00:50 admitted that this was a kind of rogue tweet.

00:54 It was put out by the neighborhood commissioner, Oliver Verhelyi, who is from Hungary.

01:00 He's an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

01:04 The Commission spokesperson said that tweet was put out without consultation with anyone

01:09 from the Commission College, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

01:14 So it was essentially him acting alone.

01:17 Now national EU governments were furious when this tweet came out yesterday because that

01:21 discussion over the review of EU aid and the suspension while the review is being carried

01:27 out was supposed to happen today at this emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers, which is

01:32 happening this afternoon.

01:33 Verhelyi essentially preempted that and announced this as EU policy.

01:38 And so of course the media reported this as the EU has suspended aid to Palestine.

01:43 And we've just heard from the Commission spokesperson, no, that isn't true.

01:46 The EU hasn't suspended aid.

01:48 The big question now is if you have a rogue commissioner within the Commission College

01:52 acting on his own, how can anyone trust any tweet put out by a commissioner, by a European

01:59 commissioner?

02:01 For her part, the spokesperson was asked, will President von der Leyen be taking disciplinary

02:06 action against this commissioner?

02:08 Will she be asking for him to resign, which is her right to do?

02:11 He is effectively a member of her cabinet, like a prime minister would have ministers

02:16 in their cabinet.

02:17 He said, no, she's focused on the situation on the ground, on the crisis.

02:22 But this has been an incredibly confusing situation.

02:24 We'll see.

02:25 It's still possible that the foreign affairs ministers meeting this afternoon may say,

02:29 no, actually, we do want to suspend this aid.

02:32 Israel has long complained that this aid going for development in the Palestinian territories

02:36 actually ends up in the hands of terrorists.

02:39 The EU has long disputed that, saying there are tight controls that make sure this only

02:44 goes to civilian projects, building hospitals, building roads, paying civil servants.

02:50 And so the problem is, if you suspend the funds, then it's almost a tacit admission

02:55 that the funds may have been going to terrorists.

02:58 This is a very tricky issue, and this is going to be an explosive meeting of foreign affairs

03:02 ministers this afternoon.

03:03 Indeed, we'll see what comes out of that meeting of the EU foreign ministers.

03:07 For now, though, Dave Keating in Brussels.

03:09 Thanks very much.

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