27 members of the European Parliament have urged the EU to rethink the guidelines issued in July by the European Commission which ban funding of Israeli entities beyond the Green Line.
In a letter addressed to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the MEPs, from across the political spectrum, urged the EU Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to reverse or at least soften the guidelines which are slated to go into effect on January 1, 2014, and jeopardize Israel’s participation in the EU’s most important and lucrative research and innovation seven-year programme called Horizon 2020 with a budget of 70 billion euro ($94 billion). Israe was to contribute 600 million euros to the project.
The MEPs urged Catherine Ashton "to take all the necessary steps to withdraw the Commission guidelines or, at the very least, to come to terms with the government of Israel to ensure that their implementation will reflect the deep bilateral relations between the European Union and Israel and would by no means harm them".
EU and Israeli officials have held intensive discussions over the last two months in order to try to find a compromise on the language of the guidelines in order to allow Israel’s participation in the Horizon 2020 programme. Israel has until the end of November or the start of December to sign onto the program.
Israel has taken part in EU research and development programs since 1996, including over the last seven years in which 1,584 Israeli researchers took part in more than 1,300 projects and received a total of nearly 640 million euros in grant money.
But since the guidelines were issued in July, forbidding EU member states from ‘’cooperating, transferring funds, giving scholarships or research grants to entities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights,’’ Israel said it would not sign any future agreement with the EU demanding that Israeli companies wishing to take part in Horizon 2020 should state publicly that they ‘’are not active in the settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights and that these territories are not part of Israel and therefore not covered by EU-Israel agreements.’’
Israel says it cannot be forced to discriminate against its own institutions and denounced the guidelines as an attempt to prejudge Israel’s future borders.
In an op-ed published in The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the new EU ambassador to Israel, wrote that the guidelines ‘’merely codify a longstanding EU policy: to avoid using European tax payers’ money to fund activites in the settlements.’’
He said the discussions between the EU and Israel on the implementation of the guidelines are currently being held in a ‘’constructive atmosphere.’’ ‘’From the very outset, the EU stated that it was prepared to discuss the precise modalities of implementation of the guidelines while stressing that their content should be respected.’’
Israel is the only non-EU country invited to take part in Horiozon 2020. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin has warned that if there is no deal, Israel risks missing out on generous funding for its scientists and Europe will lose Israeli-know how. "We are the start-up nation. It would be a big mistake for Europe to lose its relations with Israel," he said.