Brussels, Belgium, March 9, 2010 (Pal Telegraph) - Six MEPs who participated recently in the largest delegation of European parliamentarians to visit Gaza met this morning with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, and called on the European Union to play a greater role in the Israel-Palestine peace process. The group met with Buzek in advance of his meeting with the EU's Foreign Policy Commissioner Catherine Ashton, who will travel to Gaza in mid March.

The delegation of 50 European MPs visit the destroyed areas of Gaza

The delegation members present at the meeting were MEPs Malika Benarab-Attou (France), Nessa Childers (Ireland), Bairbre de Brún (Northern Ireland ), Roberto Goebbels (Luxembourg), Alexandra Thein (Germany) and Helmut Scholz (Germany). Also participating were Arafat Shoukri, chair of the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza, which organized the delegation, and campaign member Mazen Kahel, director of the French Palestinian Forum.

President Buzek agreed at the end of the meeting to convey the remarks of the delegation to Baroness Ashton, expressing his keen interest in seeing the European Parliament play a helpful role.