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The EU-Israel Dimension of the Middle East Peace Process: The Importance of Germany
By Lily Gardner FeldmanExpanding Our Perspective
President Bush's recent trip to Europe and Prime Minister Blair's London conference have reconfirmed the Middle East as a priority area for transatlantic cooperation. American observers have focused on the death of Yassir Arafat and the creation of a new Israeli government as indications that the players have changed. They point to Prime Minister Sharon's Gaza disengagement plan and the February Sharm-el-Sheikh meeting he held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as signs on the ground that the impasse in the Quartet's "road map" for Israeli-Palestinian peace could now be broken. There is, however, another reality also auguring both change and progress that has largely been overlooked on this side of the Atlantic: the EU-Israel Action Plan signed in December 2004. As part of its European Neighborhood Policy, the EU has negotiated action plans with six other countries: Jordan, Ukraine, Morocco, Moldova, Tunisia, and the Palestinian Authority; the first two have also signed them. The action plan with Israel, stimulated in the final analysis by the EU's May 2004 enlargement, is designed to achieve an "increasingly close relationship" in three areas: economic integration, political cooperation, and societal interaction. All three aspects will expand and deepen the existing structured relationship between the EU and Israel (the prior Free Trade Agreement and Association Agreement) after many years of tense, and at times hostile, relations between the two sides. The Israeli Foreign Minister has deemed the agreement a "breakthrough" and the EU's Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy has noted the agreement's novelty in terms of Israel's written commitments. The New EU-Israel Action Plan
Five aspects of the political cooperation framework are significant for resolution of regional conflict: anti-Semitism; xenophobia; the Quartet and the road map; weapons of mass destruction; and terrorism: On the first item, the two sides have agreed to work together through institutions and law to combat anti-Semitism, with the inference that this also means addressing some of the newer forms expressed as anti-Zionism. The joint commitment to cooperate in fighting racism and xenophobia includes Islamophobia, and calls for greater tolerance on both sides for all ethnic and religious groups. In the area of the peace process, Israel has made a major and formal commitment to recognize the Quartet and to arrive at a two-state solution in accordance with the road map's provisions; at the same time, the EU recognizes Israel's right to "self-defense." Israel has agreed to formalize its discussion with the EU on weapons of mass destruction, by cooperating on their non-proliferation and means of delivery and promoting regional peace and security through the Barcelona Process framework relating to this area. The two sides will coordinate their activities to fight terrorism through bilateral action and exchange, as well as in international fora and in third countries.
While the framework for EU-Israel economic ties already exists, the new agreement upgrades the relationship significantly, reinforcing or opening up Israeli participation in a range of EU programs, including the industrial, science and technology, and environmental spheres. The EU is Israel's principal trading partner, and enhanced commerce with the newly-enlarged EU is essential for an Israel that is trying to emerge from economic recession. The commitment to deepening trade, investment and economic ties now covers the service sector, including financial services. In a related development, Günter Verheugen, the EU Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Enterprise and Industry, recently indicated that he would "not even rule out monetary union" with Israel as a long-term goal. In the broader societal domain, Israel and the EU have agreed to furthering cooperation and coordination on Justice and Home Affairs, including migration, asylum, police and judicial affairs. At the people-to-people level, there will be increased mobility of students and teachers through the creation of a "European Higher Education and Vocational Training Area," and enhanced Israeli participation in existing EU programs. The new cooperative activities in the cultural and civil society spheres, as with the other areas of societal exchange, are designed to reinforce and expand personal and institutional networks. Germany's Role
In his February 2005 speech to the Israeli Knesset to kick off the celebration of forty years of German-Israeli diplomatic relations, German President Horst Köhler acknowledged that Germany had played a vigorous role in the successful conclusion of the EU-Israel agreement during the course of eighteen months of difficult negotiations. He also noted, as does the Action Plan itself, the longer-term origin of the agreement in the December 1994 Essen Council, in which, under considerable prodding from Chancellor Kohl, the EU granted Israel "a special status." The two acts of support were instances of what Prime Minister Sharon has called Germany's "commitment to the security and welfare of Israel... in critical hours." And there have been a number of other such instances in the European Community/European Union in the last five decades, commencing with German support for Israel's attempts for a formal association with the EU in the late 1950s. Germany is credited for the dominant role in the EC's 1975 Free Trade Agreement with Israel, and in the subsequent Association Agreement in 1995. Politically, Germany has acted as a brake on EU policies in the diplomatic arena that have tended toward the Palestinian position, for example diluting the language of the Venice Declaration in 1980 and refusing to join the EU momentum for sanctions against Israel some two decades later during the second intifada. In a major speech to the Knesset in July 1959, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion recognized the importance of Germany to Israel, in part due to its central role in Europe. Today, Israel publicly recognizes Germany as its "friend" and has set the stage for a major, positive transformation with Europe writ large. For the Middle East peace process to remain a key agenda item for transatlantic cooperation, there must be movement in all of the bilateral pairs comprising the quadrilateral ( U.S., EU, Israel, Palestinian Authority). In the historically difficult dyad of Europe and Israel, there is now some dynamism. This recalibration could inspire other bilateral pairs in this foursome, making the prospects for peace a little brighter. Germany will be an important partner in much of that effort. ........................................................................................................................ This essay appeared in the March 10, 2005, AICGS Advisor. ........................................................................................................................ The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.
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