November 5, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 9, 1424

BRUSSELS, Nov 4: European Commission head Romano Prodi has expressed deep concern at an EU poll showing that Europeans consider Israel the biggest threat to world peace, insisting it did not represent EU policy.

The EU executive meanwhile denied any political role in the compilation of the poll, which sparked outrage in Israel, saying it was drawn up at a technical level.

“I am very concerned at the results of this survey. They point to the continue existence of a bias that must be condemned out of hand,” Prodi said in a statement, a day after the poll which put Israel ahead of Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.

“To the extent that this may indicate a deeper, more general prejudice against the Jewish world, our repugnance is even more radical,” Prodi, who was in New York, was quoted as saying on Monday.

The Eurobarometer poll, which sparked outrage from Israel, showed that 59 per cent of Europeans see Israel as a threat to world peace — ahead of Iran, North Korea and the US, who were in joint second place on 53 per cent.

On Monday a commission spokesman in Brussels repeatedly refused to comment on the results or express concern about them, stating simply that they would not have an impact on policy.

Prodi reiterated this point as well. “I need hardly stress that Eurobarometer does not reflect the commission’s thinking or policy. The commission does not base its policies on opinion polls,” he said.

But he added: “The survey reveals signs that we must all consider carefully, with the aim of finding the right responses.”

“In the Europe born in reaction to the horrors of war and the Shoah there is no place for anti-Semitism and it cannot be tolerated,” he said.

On Tuesday the commission spokesman insisted the opinion poll was compiled at a technical level — although it admitted it will study how such polls are compiled in the future.

In particular attention will focus on who writes the questions for the polls, said a spokesman.

The poll, part of a wider survey on attitudes to the Iraq war, was presented in the form of a list of 15 countries, from which some 7,515 respondents were asked to say which ones they thought posed a threat to world peace.

“We’ll study the question and see if it’s necessary to make changes or take into consideration some other way of choosing the questions,” spokesman Gerassimos Thomas said, adding: “This question if asked in a different way would perhaps have given different results.”

The spokesman, pressed repeatedly on who wrote the questions for the survey, said: “It wasn’t a political affair. It was a technical business.”

At one point he even appeared to call into question the validity of the poll result, saying: “We have to see, clearly, what we can and cannot read into this question.”

“If the question was to indicate a rise of preoccupation of anti-Semitism or prejudice about the Jewish world .. it is a major concern and we have to reflect on this,” he added.

The commission added the poll had cost 150,000 euros, rejecting suggestions that it had been a waste of money. “Our assessment is that the survey gave useful input,” he said.—AFP