The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, Catherine Ashton, expressed in an statement Union's encouragement to the positive outcome of the launch of direct peace talks for the Middle east. She also took the opportunity to comment Commissioner De Gucht declarations confident that they were not intended to offence any of the parties.

In the Statement made on 3 September, Baroness Ashton, expressed the encouragement felt by the Union by the positive outcome of the launch of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and reiterated her appreciation of the vision and political courage of Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas.

The High Representative believes that Washington's talks are just the start of a long and difficult process but do represent an important step on the road towards a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the region. As made in several occasions, the European Union has once more expressed the full support to the Government of the United States in its efforts for the peace process in the Middle East, and has committed all the efforts to contribute to such process. In so doing, HRVP Ashton, commends the U.S. President Barack Obama, her U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator George Mitchell for the successful launch of the negotiations and wants to credit her Quartet of the Middle East partners, Quartet Envoy Tony Blair and all of the EU member states and Arab partners for their support and contribution to this process.

Now the parties must engage in this process with determination to overcome the obstacles and work fast and hard on all the final status issues to meet the Quartet's call for a negotiated settlement within one year.

The High Representative also noted the comments by her fellow Commissioner Karel De Gucht and pointed to his statement, confident that he did not intend any offence. She also reaffirmed the EU's engagement and full support to the success of the negotiations and stressed the role of the Quartet in driving this process to a successful conclusion.

The High Representative will discuss with Senator Mitchell and Quartet partners during the coming days how to further support the next rounds of talks.