Israel – European Union relations

Euro-Israeli relations

Israel	European Union

Relations between Israel and the European Union are generally positive.

[edit] The EC-Israel Cooperation Agreement (1975)

This section requires expansion.

[edit] The EU-Israel Association Agreement (2000)

The EU-Israel Association Agreement^[1] forms the legal basis governing relations between Israel and the European Union, modelled on the network of Euro-Mediterranean Agreements between the Union and its partners in the southern flank of the Mediterranean Sea.

The agreement with Israel incorporates free trade arrangements for industrial goods, concessionary arrangements for trade in agricultural products (a new agreement here entered into force in 2004), and opens up the prospect for greater liberalisation of trade in services, and farm goods, from 2005. The Association Agreement was signed in Brussels on 20 November 1995, and entered into force on 1 June 2000,^[2] following ratification by the 15 Member States' Parliaments, the European Parliament and the Knesset. It replaces the earlier Co-operation Agreement of 1975.

The Association Agreement established two main bodies for the EU-Israel dialogue. The EU-Israel Association Council (held at ministerial level) and the EU-Israel Association Committee (held at the level of senior officials) meet at regular intervals, to discuss political and economic issues as well as bilateral or regional co-operation.

Upgrading the Association Agreement is currently on hold following a vote in the European Parliament to postpone the issue in December 2008, due to continuing settlement-building and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.^[3] Ratification of an Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) is being postponed by the European Parliament until further progresses in the peace process.^[4]

[edit] Trade

Trade between the EU and Israel is conducted on the basis of the Association Agreement. The European Union is Israel’s major trading partner.^[5] In 2004 the total volume of bilateral trade (excluding diamonds) came to over €15 billion. 33% of Israel’s exports went to the EU and almost 40% of its imports came from the EU.

Total EU (27 Member States) trade with Israel rose from €19.4 billion in 2003 to 21.36 in 2004. EU exports to Israel reached €12.75 billion in 2004, while imports from Israel were €8.6 billion. The trade deficit with Israel was €4.15 billion in the EU’s favour in 2004.

Under the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement, the EU and Israel have free trade in industrial products. The two sides have granted each other significant trade concessions for certain agricultural products, in the form of tariff reduction or elimination, either within quotas or for unlimited quantities.

Article 2 of the Association Agreement states:

Relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.

However, goods from Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories are not subjected to the free trade agreement, as they are not considered Israeli. In 2009, a German court solicited the European Court of Justice for a binding ruling on whether goods manufactured in Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories should fall under duty exemptions in the Association Agreement. The German government stated as its position that that there can be no exemption from customs duty for "goods from the occupied territories".^[6] The court, agreeing with the German government, ruled in February 2010 that settlement goods were not entitled to preferential treatment under the customs rules of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and allowed the EU to impose import duties on settlement products.^[7]

[edit] Scientific cooperation

Israel was the first non-European country to be associated to the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development (RTD). Israel's special status is the result of its high level of scientific and research capability and the dense network of long-standing relations in scientific and technical co-operation between Israel and the EU. The European Commission signed an agreement with Israel in July 2004 allowing for its participation in the EU’s Galileo project for a Global Navigation Satellite System.

[edit] Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

Israel, because of its high national income, is not eligible for bilateral funding under MEDA. It has however been involved in a wide variety of Euro-Mediterranean regional programmes funded under MEDA:

• Young Israelis participate in youth exchange programmes with their European and Mediterranean counterparts under the Euro-Med Youth Action Programme.
• Israeli filmmakers have benefited from funding and training under the Euro-Med Audiovisual Programme.
• Israeli universities participate in the FEMISE forum of economic institutes while chambers of commerce and employers associations have participated in programmes like UNIMED and ArchiMedes.
• Institutes like the Israel Antiquities Authority participate in Euromed Cultural Heritage.

[edit] EU membership for Israel

Although Israel is not located in Europe, it considers itself culturally part thereof.^[8] This perception is widely shared in Europe; this situation is similar to that of Cyprus, which is already an EU member state. Israel thus is a member in many European transnational federations and frameworks and takes part in many European sporting events.^[9] Various Israeli ministers have expressed that they would like to see Israel in the EU. The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who visited Israel in February 2010, said that his "greatest desire" was to see Israel join the European Union.^[10] The European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, stated in 2009 that Israel had a very significant relationship with the EU, amounting almost to full cooperation through participation in the EU's programmes.^[11]

[edit] Inter-relation with Middle East peace process policy

The European Union attaches great importance to the finding of a just and final settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict and supports initiatives to further the peace process, through the role of the Special Envoy for the Middle East Peace Process (Marc Otte), through its involvement in support of the Quartet (EU, US, Russia, UN), its programmes of humanitarian and other assistance for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, by virtue of the commitments entered into by Israel, the PA and the EU in the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans, as well as through programmes for civil society and people to people contacts.^[12] The EU is also the largest donor of aid to the Palestinian autonomous areas.

The EU has been more critical of Israel and more supportive of the Palestinians than the US. The general position of the EU is that a Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 borders with equivalent land swaps, Jerusalem should be divided and become the capital of both states, and a negotiated settlement be found for the Palestinian refugee issue, although member states have sometimes been divided on these issues. However, EU states consider Israeli settlements illegal under international law. The EU has insisted that it will not recognize any changes to the 1967 borders other than those agreed between the parties. Israel's settlement program has thus led to some tensions. The most difficult of these issues, however, is Jerusalem. Israel has insisted that the city will remain its undivided capital, and is fiercely opposed to its re-division. Israel does not regard Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem as settlements, while the EU does. East Jerusalem has been a de facto part of Israel following Israel's unilateral annexation of the area, while the EU, along with the rest of the international community regards it as occupied territory subject to negotiations. In 2008, during the French presidency of the Council, the European Union strived to increase cooperation with the US on Middle-Eastern issues, inter alia with a view to coordinating common pressures on Israel.^[13] In late 2009 and 2010, a Swedish-drafted EU paper called for Jerusalem to be divided and become the joint capital of Israel and a Palestinian state, and criticized Israel's building in East Jerusalem.^[14][15] The draft was met with Israeli opposition, and was eventually not adopted.^[16]

European Union foreign ministers welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conditional endorsement of a future Palestinian state in June 2009, but said it was not enough to raise EU-Israel ties to a higher level and questioned the conditions set for backing a Palestinian state and Netanyahu's defense of Jewish settlements. In December 2010, a group of 26 former EU statesmen submitted a written petition calling for EU sanctions on Israel for settlement construction. The request was rebuffed by Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton.^[17]

The EU has also been highly critical of Israeli military actions in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, often referring to them as "disproportionate" and "excessive force" and calling for an immediate cease-fire. During Operation Defensive Shield, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for economic sanctions on Israel and an arms embargo on both parties. Following the Gaza War, the European Parliament endorsed the Goldstone Report. The EU has also been critical of Israel's Gaza blockade, referring to it as "collective punishment".

Following the Palestinian Authority's announcement that it would declare independence in September 2011, EU member states grew divided over the issue, with some stating that they might recognize the state if talks did not progress, or to punish Israel for settlement construction.

[edit] Further reading

• Ahlswede, Stefan (2009). Israel's European Policy after the Cold War. Düsseldorf Series on International Law and Policy. Baden-Baden: Nomos. ISBN 978-3-8329-4817-7. http://www.sub.uni-hamburg.de/opus/volltexte/2010/3944/. 
• Musu, Costanza (2010). European Union Policy towards the Arab-Israeli Peace Process. The Quicksands of Politics.. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230553125. 
• Pardo, Sharon; Peters, Joel (2010). Uneasy Neighbors: Israel and the European Union. Lanham, MD: Lexington. ISBN 978-0739127568. 

[edit] External links

• The European Friends of Israel website
• Article by Israeli ambassador to the EU in TheParliament.com 9 February 2009

[edit] Notes and references