The Palestinian-Israeli
conflict has always been of major concern to Europe because of the importance of this festering issue and because of Europe's proximity to the Middle East. Prior to 1973, the E.U. member
countries had differing policies, with the Gaullist France displaying a pro-Arab bias and countries like Germany and Netherlands having very close relations with Israel. Since that time and especially since the Oslo accord of 1993, the European Union has tried to follow a unified and consistent
policy with regard to the Middle East conflict. This
paper reviews the background and
general development of the policy, the problems that the policy has faced and its current status. The paper also includes a general assessment of the E.U.'s Middle East policy (its achievements and failures), as well as a comparison of the policy with that of the United States'.