As US presidential election is drawing close the EU is intensifying implementation of its Middle East policy. In late October EU foreign and security policy chief Mr. Solana visited Sudan and made promise that the EU would put 400 million euro into solution of the Darfur issue. Meanwhile Mr. Solana said the Israeli unilateral action plan should be the first step toward full pullout from the occupied land. He reiterated that the EU would intensify implementation of its Middle East policy to help Palestine and Israel walk out of the recurring "violent cycle". Before this Mr. Solana also announced four main points of EU plan to accelerate peace talks in the Middle East, including security, election, politics and economic reform etc.

According to Palestinian Foreign Minister Shaath five European foreign ministers would visit Ramallah where they would hold meetings with Arafat, and persuade Israel to end restriction on Arafat's personal freedom and restart bilateral negotiation between Palestine and Israel etc.

The press observes that the EU's stepping up of its political, economic and diplomatic commitment to the Middle East is intended to make some accomplishment on the Middle East issue during the "period of diplomatic vacuum" before the US presidential election. The Middle East is adjacent to Europe geographically and has been traditionally viewed as the "back yard" of Europe separated by the sea. Its importance as Europe's flank was especially obvious during the cold war. With the end of the cold war, particularly after the September 11 event, the EU is, along with its east expansion, accelerating its pace of moving south and establishing a "Mediterranean Region Common Economic Zone". It seems rather like the EU is fighting tit-for-tat with the "Great Middle East Free Trade Zone" advocated by the US. This renders the strategic status of the Middle East even more prominent. The Middle East is growing further in weight in the strategic interaction among big powers.

For a long time the US has used Europe largely by "borrowing its strength", that is, Europe needs only to contribute financially, but would have not dominating role in the Middle East. Thus it can be seen that contest in the Middle East between supremacy and challenge to supremacy, monopolization and multi-polarization is rather fierce within a certain period of time. The US views the Middle East as its "exclusive domain" and does not allow outside involvement including that of the EU. However, in times when its ability is not equal to its ambition the US has to make certain concessions in the Middle East and ask the EU, Russia and the UN for a helping hand. This is the general backdrop against which the "quartet" of the Middle East route map exists and which provides Europe with an opportunity to play an active role in the Middle East. At the moment the White House is absorbed in the election and too busy to mind other things. The EU steps up its action in the Middle East at this point because, first, opportunity presents itself and it is not to be wasted and, second, the complicated and sensitive situation in the Middle East after the war in Iraq sets up a stage on which it can put its ability to good use.

Essentially the Middle East is linked with the EU's fundamental interests and this is the key reason that the EU steps up implementation of its Middle East policy. Oil abounds in the Middle East. The "industrial blood" lying underground in the Arab countries is like a great temptation. Half of the EU energy source supply depends on import and import from the Middle East accounts for about 40 percent of its total oil import. According to official estimate by the EU proportion of its energy source import would increase to 70 percent by the year 2030. And expert analysis points out that judging from the oil reserves in the Middle East the Arab countries would still be the main region to supply EU oil demand. By then the situation would change like boats going up with the level of the water and European energy source reliance on the Middle East would grow even stronger.

The EU has customarily and in practice attached more importance to developing relations with the Arab countries. It has done so even at the cost of offending Israel. For example, in handling questions concerning the Palestinian leader Arafat the EU has always stressed that he is the popularly elected president of Palestine and should not be put aside, even less should he be put away. According to an AP report on October 13 the decision-making department of Israel warned in a top-secret report, which predicts situation development in the next ten years, that the EU would become an important force on the world stage in the next ten years. This may significantly reduce the international influence of the US - a major ally of Israel.

The Israeli report also said if the Palestine-Israel conflict continues more discord between Israel and the EU would result and Israel "may even be isolated like South Africa in its apartheid times". The Israeli concern is not without base. Though it may not be one hundred percent correct it outlines, to certain extent, the future development of the EU in the Middle East as well as the EU's intention behind its intensified Middle East diplomacy.

This is an article carried on the third page of People's Daily on October 26 and translated by People's Daily Online