European Union Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg announced yesterday that there is “a strong European call to withdraw” from the upcoming Durban II conference on racism without “radical changes” to the gathering’s final text. Speaking after a Brussels meeting of the 27 EU Foreign Ministers, he said that the EU would soon submit changes to the conference papers.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for changes “within the next hours and days” and warned that the Geneva meeting "might be abused to produce one-sided statements" about the Middle East peace process. According to Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, his country will not attend unless "aggressive and anti-Semitic statements" in the draft final text are changed. The United States, Canada and Israel have already announced they will boycott the April 20-24 conference scheduled to take place in Geneva.