BRUSSELS, Jan 21: Representatives of the 15 nations that make up the European Union are meeting today in Brussels to assess damage caused by Israel in the Palestinian territories to the various infrastructure facilities financed by the EU at a cost of three billion euros ($2.7 billion).

The 15 representatives at the meeting are also expected to severely condemn Israel for the wanton and “useless” destruction of the various EU-financed infrastructure projects, and ask Israel to put immediately a stop to the practice.

The straw that broke the camel’s back for the EU representatives was Israel’s destruction on Saturday of the offices of the Voice of Palestine, and the seizure of the station’s broadcast equipment. The station had been created as the result of a joint Euros 6 million ($5.4 million) grant from the EU’s two principal members — France and Germany.

The meeting is being held also to discuss the destruction of several other EU-financed facilities, among them Gaza Airport, financed by Germany, Sweden and Spain at a cost of Euros 9.3 million ($8.4 million), whose runway and radar equipment were destroyed on December 5 and 15 and January 10.

Other major EU-financed structures destroyed by Israel include three civil police camps located in Gaza that represent a EU-financed investment of Euros 2.05 million ($1.85 million) that were bombed between August and December of last year, as well as a medico-legal laboratory, financed by France, Sweden and Greece at a cost of Euros 718,000 ($645,000) that was destroyed in December.

EU sources say that a total of Euros 3 billion ($2.7 billion) have been spent by the EU and its member countries since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993. The assistance has taken the form of financial support to refugees through the United Nation’s UNRWA, as well as budgetary assistance and direct investment in infrastructure projects.

Given the EU’s realization that in recent months Israel has apparently stepped up its destruction in particular of EU-financed facilities, the EU has ordered its representatives in the Palestinian territories to come up with a detailed inventory of damage caused to Palestinian facilities, and notably those that are EU-financed.

Today’s meeting in Brussels has been called with the objective of assessing the damage, reviewing the possibility of financing reconstruction of some of the infrastructure, but notably telling Israel in no uncertain terms that an end has to be put to the practice of evidently targeting the EU-financed projects, the EU now saying it considers itself a victim, albeit an indirect one, of the Israeli destruction.

If the practice continues, the EU is expected to tell Israel that it could very well call for a boycott of Israeli exports to the EU. In the words of Austria’s chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, “it’s no longer acceptable that the EU finance an airport to have it destroyed by Israel when the EU is Israel’s principal export market,” who notes that the EU “must now better defend its interests in the region.”

The EU representatives are also expected to discuss a proposal made by some delegations according to which Israel should be asked to indemnify the EU for the more than Euros 20 million ($18 million) worth of damage it has caused so far to EU-financed facilities in the Palestinian territories.