Brussels, 18/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU/Israel Association Committee (and not, as mistakenly stated, the Association Council), created in the context of the association agreement that took effect in June 2000, will be meeting on 21 May in Brussels. Composed of senior officials, the Committee must review conditions for implementation of the agreement, one year after taking effect, as well as several cooperation themes (environment, culture, etc.). For now, according to one Israeli source, there is no outstanding problem but the European side wishes to highlight the problem of barriers to trade and transit of goods originating in autonomous Palestinian territories, mainly those covered by the interim agreement signed in 1997 by the EU with the Palestinian Authority (for what was said at the European Parliament on the subject of problems of rules of origin, see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8 and 17 May, p.3).
The question could reflect negatively on the meeting of Euro-Mediterranean trade ministers who are invited to discuss for the first time, on 29 May, possibilities for commercial cooperation in the area. It is expected - though it has still to be confirmed - that Syria and Lebanon will, on this occasion, present objections to Israeli participation to such a meeting (unless they boycott it completely as they had done during the ministerial meeting in Marseilles last November). It would, at any rate, be to prevent reactions of this kind that the Presidency has chosen to give an informal nature to the ministerial session of 29 May. (See EUROPE of 14/15 May, p.2).