ABSTRACT
Introduction On 10 April 2002, US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the formation of a Madrid ‘Middle East Quartet’, with a view to reviving the agenda of the 1991 Madrid peace conference with the UN Secretary-General, the EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy (Javier Solana), and the Russian Foreign Minister. The focus of this approach was on pursuing a twostate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active engagement of outside actors. In other words, the State Department had decided to pursue a multilateral approach to the peace process, and cooperation with European governments was to be a key factor. Since its creation, the Quartet has at times been a protagonist in the peace process, mainly with the elaboration of the ‘Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, and at times deemed irrelevant. The latter has been the case especially when the bilateral track of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians – with the US as sole mediator or at least facilitator – seemed to be the only active track, and even more so during the numerous periods when violence escalated and the international community seemed unable, or unwilling, to play a constructive role in helping the parties to reach a settlement. For the EU, participation in the Quartet meant an important step forward in its role in the peace process. With its involvement on the diplomatic level, the EU became a more acknowledged actor in the search for peace in the Middle East, a position it tried to consolidate by launching its own (limited) peace operations in the Palestinian territories in the context of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and by contributing troops to the UN mission in Southern Lebanon. Still, the role of the EU in the Arab-Israeli conflict has remained limited overall. While the Europeans gained some influence over US policy through the Quartet, they also lost some of their freedom of manoeuvre and at times were caught up in US inaction.
