European Commssion wants Israel in 'Wider Europe'

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European Commssion wants Israel in 'Wider Europe' initiative

LONDON - The European Commission announced
Wednesday that it intends to incorporate Israel
into its "Wider Europe" initiative, which may give
it a status similar to that of European Union
states, especially on commercial and economic
issues.

EU representatives who met with
a Foreign Ministry delegation
in Brussels on Wednesday as
part of the annual meeting of
the Israeli-EU Association
Agreement Committee said that
unlike in the past, EU-Israeli
relations will no longer be
conditional on the progress of
the Israeli-Palestinian peace

process.

Over the past few weeks, Israel has created an
inter-ministerial task force to formulate its
stance on the Wider Europe scheme. Adopting
this scheme would mean a new model of relations
with the EU, similar to the one the European
bloc currently has with Switzerland and
Norway.

Israeli diplomatic sources said that Wednesday's
talks were conducted in a cordial and
businesslike manner, though no understanding
was reached on the controversy over taxing
Israeli goods produced in the settlements. The
Europeans promised to expand cooperation in
several fields, including economics and the
law.

A large part of the talks focused on energy and
the environment, and the Europeans asked Israel
to finish ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on
environmental protection. They stressed that a
positive answer from Israel would considerably
improve Israel's status in the EU. If Israel
ratifies the agreement, this would bring the
number of states to the minimum required to
implement it, despite the United States'
objections.

Israel's Ambassador to the EU Oded Eran said
that considerable progress was made Wednesday,
and that the Europeans were surprisingly
positive on many issues. Among others, he said,
the Europeans proposed formalizing contacts to
bring an Israeli work group into the European
satellite project Galileo, after which Israel's
permanent position in the project would be
determined.