BRUSSELS — An EU-led effort to raise funds for Palestinian reconstruction and stake a claim to influence on the Gaza peace process has been criticized for highlighting the bloc’s limitations in the region.

Thursday’s Palestine Donor Group meeting, announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in September, is the latest attempt by Brussels to assert its diplomatic relevance vis-à-vis Gaza. The EU is seeking a spot on Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up to supervise Hamas’ disarmament and Gaza’s reconstruction.

“We want to be players,” Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica insisted this week, “and not only payers.”

But according to some lawmakers, that goal is a fair way off.

“Brussels would like to give the impression of leadership, but in reality the Palestine donor group is yet another symbolic meeting,” Anders Vistisen, chief whip of the far-right Patriots group, told POLITICO. “The EU has poured billions into Palestinian institutions, projects and so-called reform processes for decades — and it has neither delivered stability nor accountability.”

It’s “the United States — not the European Union — that is defining the political and security framework in Gaza,” he added. “As long as Brussels acts as a cash machine without a coherent strategy, conditions, or political leverage, the EU will remain a spectator rather than a meaningful actor.”

Hanna Jalloul, a Socialists and Democrats MEP, said the EU’s inaction on Israel amid mounting atrocities in Gaza had damaged its credibility as a stakeholder in the peace process. Asked if the outcomes of Thursday’s much-vaunted conference could help make the EU a real player in Gaza, Jalloul laughed. “No,” she said. “But dreaming is free.”

One diplomat who attended the conference, which gathered around 60 delegations from countries in Europe and the Middle East, said the EU had “repackaged what they already do into this.” There was little mention of Gaza beyond reiterating support for the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing Trump’s plan, and no “creative thinking” about how to reconstruct or govern Gaza, the diplomat said.

Funding the Palestinian Authority

At an event on the margins of the meeting, the EU, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain committed an additional €82 million to the Palestinian Authority, bringing the amount pledged this year to €88 million.

The EU is the largest global donor of the PA, which governs the West Bank and is expected to play some role in Gaza’s future administration. Historically, the EU’s role in the region has been to provide it with humanitarian aid and financial backing.

But the power and relevance of the body, which exercises partial control over the Palestinian areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has faded in recent years as it suffers from corruption allegations, weak governance and low support from Palestinians. Its long-serving president, Mahmoud Abbas, turned 90 last week.

Šuica emphasized that the bloc’s support remains closely tied to the PA’s reform agenda. “We see these reforms as a prerequisite for a viable two-state solution, which is our ultimate goal,” she said.

In a briefing ahead of the donor conference, an EU official said that support for the PA was the best way for Europe to ensure a role in the future administration of Gaza, adding that organizing the conference shows the EU plays a key role.

The official pointed out that the EU has 10 people serving in the U.S.-led Civil-Military Coordination Centre, the body set up to implement Trump’s peace plan. In addition, the EU plans to train 3,000 Palestinian police officers and help monitor one of the Gaza border crossings.

According to a Commission press release, Thursday’s meeting was “first and foremost an opportunity to take stock of the progress made [toward the PA’s reform] and draw political support from international partners.”

Koert Debeuf, previously an adviser to former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt who is now a professor in Middle East studies at the Brussels School of Governance, said the conference was simply a shiny repackaging of the EU’s long-standing “absent” approach to Gaza. “The EU will do what it’s always done, which is give some money, ask for some promises, and then we will see.”

His criticism was shared by U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, who on Tuesday told reporters at a European Parliament event that the EU’s latest push to get involved in Gaza was too little, too late.

“Nothing has been done,” she said. “They should have been at the discussion table when the destruction of Gaza could have been prevented.”

Nicholas Vinocur contributed reporting.