Israel, EU Down to the Wire over Settlements Loophole

by Shlomo Cesana

The EU must sign a scientific cooperation agreement with Israel this week • Will the wording exclude Judea and Samaria, or will the EU relent and sign a compromise formulation? • Naftali Bennett says will not sign if Judea and Samaria are not included.

Not just semantics: Can Israel and the EU achieve a compromise on wording? | Photo credit: Reuters

On Monday, the European Union is expected to decide whether it seeks a direct confrontation with Israel or whether it gives up and rewrites a directive it itself had set. 

According to the directive, every agreement between Israel and the EU must contain a clause stipulating that settlements in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are not part of the state of Israel. 

The directive is not expected to go into effect until November 1, 2014. However, this week the EU must decide whether to sign a scientific cooperation agreement with Israel, known as Horizon 2020, or whether to insist that Judea and Samaria be excluded from the agreement, thus ousting Israel from the important program after many years. 

Israelis are convinced that "all the technical details and most of the legal issues have already been agreed on," and that a legal loophole will be found to circumvent the conflict, but Israel and the Europeans have still not reached a final compromise. 

Because the agreement must be signed if Israeli companies are to compete under the auspices of the project, it is absolutely necessary that a decision on the matter be taken by mid-November. Monday is the first workday in Europe after November 15. 

For several months now, the Foreign Ministry has been working with European Union officials on a legal formulation that will resolve the crisis. The person expected to sign the agreement, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi), has stated that he would not sign it if the wording excludes Judea and Samaria.

Shlomo Cesana

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=13381

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