mr president can i just say that the issue of where i sit i suspect will keep coming back
i am sitting here because the council is over there
i may have to go and sit over there or you may have to build me a seat equidistant because i assure you i will be in trouble somewhere for wherever i sit
it is a great delight though to be here with cecilia and i look forward very much to working with her
what strikes me about the debate that we have just had is that pretty much and i think mr atkins you may be the exception in what you said though i listened with great care there is a shared conviction that what we are looking for is a two-state solution
there is an enormous amount of passion from all parliamentarians especially if i may say mr de rossa and those members who have recently come back and who have clearly seen for themselves the dreadful situation that exists on the ground
i believe what is significant about the council conclusions is that they are very clear
they give me a real sense of the direction that we need to move in
what is also very clear and i pay tribute to the presidency for the work that they have done on this is the frustration in this house that things are not moving frustration borne of views that are sometimes quite different but nonetheless converge on a desire to see a solution
the nuances are important
the views that you hold on the differences as well as the similarities matter to me as i navigate our future in these discussions and negotiations
there is no doubt to me that we have got to do two things
one is the rather political issues that you quite rightly raise
what is our relationship to be
i am at the beginning of that journey and this debate is extremely important to me in listening to the views that have been put forward
what i take away from it is first of all that the quartet must demonstrate that it is worth the money that it is actually able to be reinvigorated
i have already talked with the staff by video link in jerusalem i have already talked to mr blair about his work and i have already talked to secretary of state clinton about the same things
it is very important if it is going to work that the word reinvigorate is absolutely right
secondly there are the issues in the region which the presidency has raised about the broader questions of those other countries that we need to engage with
i think most significant from today is what is the eu itself going to be able to do
that brings me in a sense to what i call the practical
a number of colleagues have raised particular issues whether it is a question of what the uk is doing on labelling whether it is issues about the association agreement whether this report the heads of mission report and the recommendations that i have not yet considered within it are there
we need to consider all of these issues carefully but what we have got to do is demonstrate the practical support that we put on the ground
i described one two hundred classrooms that were needed and i described our work in health
we are very committed to prime minister fayyad's state-building plan and to enhancing the institutions particularly in terms of the rule of law
we must be seen to be practically engaged on the ground and practically working to find ways in which we can make the situation better for the people who have to live there every day and who look to us for the help that they need
that is the most significant and practical thing i need to do first of all
i would describe the work that i want to do as this we have the potential to do the political and the economic
what i want to do is draw those two things together to find a way in which we can enhance what we do to support the work that is going on to make the quartet more effective to bring together what has been in a sense the council and commission operating side by side and to meld it into one so that what we do on the ground really makes a difference
in the end it is the two sides who come together to make the decision and to find the peace
but on the way to the end we have a significant role to play and i am determined on your behalf as well as on behalf of the commission and the council that we play our full part in that
