European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will pay his first official visit to Israel since his appointment as head of the EU's executive body, EJP has learned.
He is due in Israel at the end of next week, sources said. The visit has not yet been officially announced by the EU Commission spokesperson. “Mr Barroso is this week extremely busy with the preparations of the EU leaders summit,” one source in his cabinet told EJP.
But the visit is seen in Brussels as a major diplomatic gain for Israel, whose relations with the European Union have rather been tense in the last few months.
Last May, in a strongly worded statement, the European Union blamed Israel for the Israeli-Palestinian talks impasse and said developments on the ground " threaten to make a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians impossible," citing the acceleration of Israeli settlement construction.
Among the topics which are likely to be discussed during Barroso’s visit in Jerusalem is also the issue of a EU-Israel agreement signed by the two parties in May 2010 by the EU ministers but whose formal ratification by the European Parliament has been so far delayed for political reasons linked to the peace process.
The so-called Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA) seeks to create a single market for Israel’s renowned pharmaceutical goods industry in the EU by eliminating technical barriers to trade and establishing infrastructure and health and safety protection required by EU member states.
Whilst the EU parliament has the power to block it, it has not done so but instead the parliament committee charged with overseeing the agreement, froze discussions on the issue, following the controversial flotilla incident in May 2010.
A former Prime Minister in Portugal from 2002 to 2204, the 56-year-old Jose Manuel Barroso was nominated by the European Council (the 27 EU heads of state or government) in 2004 and elected by the European Parliament to the post of President of the European Commission.
In June 2009 the European Council unanimously nominated him for a second term at the head of the EU Commission and he was re-elected to the post by an absolute majority in the European Parliament in September 2009.

EJP