What are the concrete consequences of the recent decision by the European Union to issue new guidelines for EU funding of Israeli entities beyond the Green Line,on Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon 2020 ?
This issue was discussed by Israeli officials this week. The head of Israel’s National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, met with representatives from the Education Ministry, Economy Ministry and Science and Technology Ministry in order to formulate a policy recommendation for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is to discuss the issue with political leaders.
Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the EU’s innovation and research programme, a flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness.
Running from 2014 to 2020 with an 80 billion euros budget, the EU’s new programme is part of the drive to create new growth and jobs in Europe.
Israel is the only non-EU country invited to participate fully in Horizon 2020.
Athough Israel would invest some €600 million in Horizon 2020 over the next seven years, Israeli universities, researchers and companies will be eligible for EU grants and other funding in a wide variety of technological fields. For every euro put in by Israel it is expected to get back 1.5 euro or about 900 million euros in total.
However, Israel’s participation has been thrown into question after the EU in July month adopted new funding guidelines that specify that all future EU grants, prizes and financial instruments will exclude Israeli entities based in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. ‘’Only Israeli entities having their place of establishment within Israel’s pre-1967 borders will be eligible,’’ the new guidelines specify.
The EU move raised a storm in Israel and was denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "an external diktat about our borders," an issue that "will be decided upon only in direct negotiations between the sides".
But although relatively few Israeli institutions that might receive Horizon 2020 funding are based in these areas, the new guidelines also stipulate that any future agreement between Israel and the EU should explicitly state – and should be signed- that it is not applicable to the territories captured in 1967.
’The EU reiterated in the guidelines that it ‘’does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.’’
The major problem for Israel is that any future agreement with the EU will comprise such a clause, which could contradict the status of some of these areas under Israeli law.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the EU is willing to discuss Israel’s objections to the guidelines, especially on the so-called territorial clause to make it easier for Israel to sign a bilateral agreement, while Jerusalem is searching for a formula acceptable to both sides.
But an EU official made it clear that the European Union will not cancel, modify or delay the implementation of the guidelines. They will take effect by January 2014.
‘’The guidelines will take effect as they are. This is how they were published in the EU’s Official Journal, as a legal act, and that’s how it will be,” Andreas Reinicke, the EU’s special representative to the Middle East peace process, told The Times of Israel.
In certain areas where the guidelines are still unclear, “a closer look” at the details might be have to be taken, he said. But their main points will not be changed.
Reinicke mentioned that several EU Foreign Ministers explicitly welcomed the new guidelines at the July 22 Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, and asserted that they are merely the implementation of EU statements that it does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the 1967 lines.
Israeli President Shimon Peres said last week that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton would raise Israel’s complaints over the directive with the EU’s Foreign Ministers.
In the meantime, it was reported that Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon gave instructions to Israeli officials to "freeze contacts with European Union representatives in Area C" of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control, while Economy Minister Naftali Bennett was quoted as calling the government to stop any link and cooperation with the EU.
In addition to the new funding guidelines, the EU, one of Israel's biggest markets, is also considering to introduce a labeling regime for the “settlement products” by the end of 2013.
Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton , suggested the panned labeling policy is an obvious outcome of Europe's longstanding view that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are ‘’illegal.’’
She said the legislation is intended to clarify to consumers that products made in the settlements ‘’are not made in Israel.’’
But Israelis say the EU risks hurting the peace process by proclaiming such policies just as Israeli-Palestinian talks resume. "It is like they are force-feeding us their political positions, like one would force-feed a goat," said an Israeli diplomatic official.