Israeli President Shimon Peres arrived in Brussels on Tuesday for a weeklong visit to Belgium, the EU and France.
The visit to the EU is aimed at strengthening Israel’s strategic political and economic relations with the European Union.
Israel has increasingly become the target of criticism within the EU and Peres hopes to ameliorate this negative attitude through meetings with European leaders and a historic address to the European Parliament in Strasburg on March 12.
89-year-old Peres will have several meetings with European leaders during his visit, including French President Francois Hollande, Bulgarian President Rosen Plevniev, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the EU Council, Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission, Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, as well as NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen and OECD secretary-general Angel Gurria.
But the first day of the trip will be devoted to Belgium. Tuesday afternoon, together with Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, Peres will participate in a ceremony at the Egmont Palace in Brussels honoring Righteous Among the Nations and will bestow medals and diplomas of honour on eleven Belgian citizens who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The decorations are awarded by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem.
Later in the day, he will be guest of honor and will deliver remarks at an event hosted by the Jewish community of Belgium. The Rector of the Brussels Free University (ULB), where several anti-Israel incidents have occurred in the last years, will attend the meeting organised by Jewish umbrella representative groups CCOJB and the Forum of Jewish organisations.
Around 40,000 Jews live in Belgium, mainly in Brussels and Antwerp.
On Wednesday, President Peres is to meet with Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
In an interview with Belgian daily newspapers Le Soir and De Standaard, Peres stressed that the basis of a peace between Israel and the Palestinians is a “two-state solution.”. “The rest needs to be negotiated,” he said.
“But there are still problems, mainly because of terrorism, and most recently because of the division among the Palestinians and the rise of the Islamists of Hamas who don’t want peace.”
“The EU was not build in five years after 1945 and centuries of wars.” “Israel has gone through and won seven wars while the Europeans didn’t face wars anymore. That’s why they are impatient.”