The European Parliament congratulated the Union for...

The European Parliament congratulated the Union for having successfully directed the Durban Conference on Racism [August -September 2001] onto the road of compromise. This, notes the Parliament, was mainly made possible because of the Belgian Presidency's effort, allowing at least a complete failure of the Conference to be avoided and bringing it to an "acceptable" result.
Council President [Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister] Louis Michel stressed that the weight of the discussions on the Middle East, in Durban, had mainly been borne by the European Union, especially after the departure of the United States and Israel. Mr Michel admitted that the behaviour of the NGOs throughout the Conference had often been "doubtful and not at all democratic".
Michel regretted that some concerns that the Union was very attached to, such as the abolition of racial discrimination in the application of the death penalty (firmly opposed by the United States but also certain Asian countries) or the introduction of the notion of discrimination based on sexual leaning, had not been taken on board in the texts.