Israel last week held a third round of “exploratory informal talks” here aimed at updating its 1975 cooperation agreement with the European Community and enhancing relations in several sectors.
The talks were marked by “good will” on the part of both sides and a desire to come to the best possible agreement, a spokesman for Israel’s embassy to the European Community told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Like the two previous rounds of talks, in December in Brussels and in April in Jerusalem, senior officials from both sides were present.
Attending were representatives from various departments of the European Executive Commission, as well from Israel’s ministries of sciences and technology, industry, foreign affairs, finance, agriculture and from the Bank of Israel.
Israel’s delegation was led by the ambassador to the E.C., Mordechai Drori, while the E.C. delegation was headed by Eberhard Rhein, director of the executive commission’s division in charge of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern areas.
Discussions are scheduled to continue between experts at various levels, the Israeli spokesman said.
FORMAL TALKS COULD START NEXT YEAR
According to well informed sources, the executive commission is expected to receive a mandate next summer from the E.C. Council of Ministers to start formal negotiations with Israel on updating the 1975 accord and signing a new one. These negotiations could start at the beginning of 1994.
It was at an informal meeting in London in September 1992 that E.C. foreign ministers expressed the wish to update the 1975 E.C.-Israel agreement, in order to take into account the new developments in international relations, such as the European Single Market and the Treaty of European Union.
The objectives of the original 1975 accord were the reciprocal abolition of trade barriers and the establishment of cooperation agreements between the E.C. and Israel.
On Jan. 1, 1989, a free trade zone in the industrial sector was fully established. On that date, Israel abolished its last remaining custom duties vis-a-vis the E.C.
One important aim of the present E.C.-Israel talks is to enlarge the sectors of cooperation between the two sides to telecommunications, environment, services, capital and new technologies.
In January, the E.C. decided to go ahead with trade cooperation talks with Israel despite calls to suspend them in protest over the deportation by Israel of 400-odd Palestinian activists to southern Lebanon last December.
“These talks must continue firstly because of contractual obligations relating to the 1975 agreements and secondly because of the priority we attach to the Mideast peace process,” a senior E.C. official said at the time.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met in February with his European counterparts in Brussels and discussed the future trade and cooperation accord between the two sides.
Last week’s talks represented a continuation of these discussions.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
