More than five years after the European Union promised to resume ministerial-level talks with Israel, and seven months after the body spoke of scheduling such an event, the European Union has yet to do so.
“We need to talk,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linus Linkevicius told The Jerusalem Post on Monday while visiting Israel.
Linkevicius was referring specifically to the absence of a meeting date for the EU-Israel Association Council – the main vehicle for joint ministerial dialogue – which has not met since 2012.
“We have to exchange positions, which is not the case so far, and [has not been] for a long time,” he said.
Linkevicius is one of several members of the 28-member body – including Estonian Foreign Minster Sven Mikser in March and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in May – who have told the Post they would like to see such meeting.
Israel has a status akin to a member-state within the EU, enjoying strong economic, educational, scientific and cultural ties. Top diplomats – including prime ministers and foreign ministers of EU member-states – are frequent visitors to Israel.
But in Brussels, on the diplomatic level, that strong relationship is often marred by the EU’s stance against Israeli actions over the pre-1967 lines, including EU opposition to settlement building and its support for illegal Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank.
Both Mikser and Szijjarto indicated that the EU position on Israeli settlement activity was to blame for the absence of a date for a council meeting.
No comments:
Post a Comment