The European Union has started working on convening a high-level meeting with Israel in the framework of the the EU-Israel Association Council, the first such encounter in five years.

The meeting, which is likely to be held at the end of the month, was announced Monday by EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini at a press conference in Brussels following a meeting of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers who discussed the latest developments in the Middle East Peace Process.

‘’The meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council will be a good opportunity to find a common ground with one of the parties (to the conflict),’’ Mogherini told reporters.

She said there will be an exchange between the 28 member states about the content of the meeting with Israel.

‘Bilateral issues issues but also foreign and regional issues are discussed at such a meeting,’’ Mogherini said.

Generally the Association Council is held at Foreign Minister level. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently also holding the foreign affairs portfolio.

The Association Council was created in the framework of the 2000 EU-Israel Association Agremeent. The last meeting of this body was held in 2012. Since then, political disagreements on the Israel-Palestinian peace process, in particular on the settlements issue, has prevented a new meeting which is normally due to be held every year.

According to observers of the EU scene, the next meeting would herald the gradual improvement and even enhancement of sometimes tense relations between the two sides. The topic of settlements building comes regularly in EU statements on the Middle East Peace Process, with the EU arguing that it it is contrary to the EU’s position on the two-state solution.

In July 2013 when the European Union issued new directives according to which no Israeli institution that operates or has links beyond the Green Line can receive EU funding or have any cooperation with the EU, no association council was held after Israel replied to the measure by vowing not sign any further agreements with the European Union until the EU “clarifies” its new regulations.

In 2015, the EU-Israel relations reached a low level when the European Commission, the EU's executive body, issued new guidelines for the member states to label Israeli products from the settlements. Israel reacted angrily, accusing the EU of discriminating and singling out Israel ‘’while ignoring the other 200 territirial disputes in the world. ''A double standard policy,'' said Jerusalem.

Cooperation betwene the EU and Israel on bilateral issues such as technology, security, trade, culture, education… is very intense.