Israel bids to boost economic ties with EU

Date: 08/06/2000

By Simon Taylor

ISRAEL is planning to use a new ground-breaking accord with the EU to push for a range of trade concessions and measures to cut red tape as it strives to boost its economic relations with the Union.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy will travel to Luxembourg next week for the first meeting of the EU-Israeli Association Council since the agreement was ratified by the Union's 15 national parliaments.

The meeting reflects the EU's desire to improve relations with Israel and encourage progress in the peace negotiations with its Arab neighbours. Levy will use Tuesday's (13 June) talks to update Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama and External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten on the state of play in negotiations with the Palestinians and Syria.

But Israel's ambassador to the Union Harry Kney-Tal told European Voice this week that despite the symbolic importance of next week's meeting, the true test of the agreement would come in the painstaking negotiations on individual sectors which lie ahead. "The association agreement reflects the interests of two parties to promote economic relations," he said. "The real work will be done after the Association Council."

Israel is one of the wealthiest of the 12 countries which have signed up to the EU's Euro-Mediterranean programme in terms of economic output compared to population size.

Kney-Tal said the accord would open a new chapter in EU-Israeli relations by establishing a political dialogue to discuss sensitive issues of mutual concern.

The agreement also sets out a number of areas for greater economic co-operation including industrial policy, energy, standards, financial services, information technology, telecoms, transport and tourism.

Kney-Tal said his country had a number of priorities for closer links to boost trade, investment and joint ventures. These include the liberalisation of financial services and a range of mutual recognition accords to reduce the need for additional testing procedures for industrial products. Tel Aviv is also keen to win the right to combine its trade concessions with those of other countries to get the best possible terms for exporting to the EU.

The ambassador added that a massive injection of funds would be needed once an Arab-Israeli peace deal had been reached because the existing programmes were not sufficient.

"The Union will have to look again at its budget line and come up with a supplementary budget," he predicted, arguing that the best way to maintain the peace would be to fund regional projects to create a "community of interests" in the Middle East in the same way that Europe had overcome its history of conflict after the Second World War.

This, he suggested, would include freedom of movement, energy links and projects to tackle the problem of water shortages and the environment.

Israel is planning to use a new ground-breaking accord with the EU to push for a range of trade concessions and measures to cut red tape as it strives to boost its economic relations with the Union.