Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is to address the European Parliament in Brussels next week and meet with EU officials.

The speech before the 751 members of the parliament will come one day before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also addresses the assembly.

During his 4-day visit, Rivlin will also meet with EU Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

He will also meet with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel et with Jewish leaders in Brussels and Antwerp.

Initially, Rivlin’s visit to the EU headquarters was scheduled last December but it was then postponed after the EU decision to issue guidelines for labeling Israeli settlements products exported to the European market.

The Israeli President recently said that Israel's relationship with the EU is ‘’indispensable’’, as he addressed last month a reception at the residence of the EU ambassador to Israel to mark Europe Day.

‘’Israel and the European Union are bound together by many ties. We share strong economic ties, which benefit both sides and the list of agreements between us is too long for me to mention here. Let me simply say to you, our largest, and most important trade partner: Israel's relationship with the European Union is indispensable," Rivlin declared.

He continued : "It is true that Israel and the EU do not always fully agree on policy issues, but our cooperation and our mutual progress should not be hostages of the lack of progress between Israel and the Palestinians.’’

76-year-old Reuven Rivlin, a former Speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and member of the Likud party, was elected President of Israel for a seven-year term in June 2014 as he succeded Shimon Peres.

As President, Rivlin declared his commitment to act to safeguard the State of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State and to aspire to firmly establish partnership between the different ideological groups in Israeli society and ensure full equality among all its citizens. He is a blunt voice for tolerance between communities.

The position of President in Israel is largely a ceremonial figurehead role with executive power effectively being exercised by the Prime Minister.

While many Israeli politicians are the children of Jewish immigrants who arrived in the 20th century, the Rivlin family is a seventh-generation resident of Jerusalem and spent decades living in a mixed Jewish-Arab city.