Brussels, 20/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Israel presented a "technical proposal" on the question of rules of origin for products originating in the occupied territories, announced Belgian Permanent Representative Frans Van Daele, after the second meeting of the EU/Israel Association Council held in Brussels on Tuesday. The elements of this proposal "will be the subject of close scrutiny", he stated. In concrete terms, according to European sources, Israel spelled out "in black and white" a proposal that it had presented in the past, consisting of considering the whole zone by accumulating rules of origin for Israel, the Palestinian territories and the occupied territories, it being understood that the certificates of origin would be issued by the Palestinian Authority for the Palestinian territories and by Israel for the repopulated colonies. The EU finds it difficult to accept this proposal, which would in fact be tantamount to recognising Israel's authority over the occupied territories. The EU wishes to keep to the UN resolutions defining the territory of Israel within its 1967 borders. In a declaration adopted by the General Affairs Council on Monday, the EU noted that "if the Association Council cannot find a solution, the EU will review its position in accord with the clauses of the Association Agreement". For the time being, the EU does not foresee opening international arbitration procedure as provided for in the Association Agreement, and "dialogue continues", states one European official. According to certain diplomats, the EU is, it seems, seeking to gain time for political reasons. Answering questions on this subject, the Belgian Permanent Representative declared that "everyone is free to make their own judgement".
EUROPE, however, has reason to believe that the European Commission will soon be adopting measures to protect the Community's financial interests. On the basis of a proposal by the Commissioners for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkestein and Trade Pascal Lamy, the Commission should warn European importers that it has "doubts" as to the validity of the Israeli certificates of origin and that Israel therefore runs the risk of having to provide financial guarantees on certificates for which it may have to reimburse the customs duties. This decision would be based on the precedent of the case of imports of colour television sets from Turkey for which the Commission was found guilty at the Court of Justice in May this year. The Court had ruled that the Commission had failed in its duties by not informing the Community importers of potential risks as soon as possible and by not using the dispute settlement procedures. Catherine Day, Assistant Director for External Relations at the Commission, simply recalled to the press that the Commission must act as guardian of the Treaties. "There are rules in the agreement that must be respected", she said.
Although political dialogue did not take place during this Association Council , in the absence of the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7), both parties also spoke of the prospect of the peace process after the Troika's visit to the Middle East and to the speech delivered on Monday by the US Secretary of State Colin Poweel (see above). Following this speech, "we believe in Israel that there is a hope the process can be relaunched", said Secretary General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Head of the Israeli Delegation, Avi Gil. The only way to make the Mitchell Report move forward is to put an end to violence, he specified, adding that Israel first of all calls on Yasser Arafat and on the Palestinian Authorities to give orders to their security forces to arrest terrorists. Only then would Israel be ready to show itself extremely generous in negotiations. The head of the Israeli delegation resumed before the press the accusations made on Sunday in Jerusalem by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whereby European aid to the budget of the Palestinian Authority is used for financing terrorist organisation. "For example, many attacks are due to the Tanzim organisation, which is directly financed by the Palestinian Authority", he affirmed. Commsisin President Romano Prodi had already responded to these accusations on Monday, stating that the European funds serve to pay the salaries of essential health, education, and police services, etc., and that the EU knows perfectly well how such aid is used. Its use is also controlled by the IMF, said Commission sources.
The Commission pointed out that no military spending had been detected during the controls and no non-governmental body had received funding so there was no leeway for EU funds to be misused. The Commission added that it regretted having to disburse such a high amount of aid to prevent the economic situation from degenerating, preferring to provide aid for investment in productive activities. The Commission noted that it Israel were to stop occupying Palestinian territory and allowed the Palestinian economy to return to normal, it would make it possible for investors to take a more proactive approach.
Before the Association Council, the FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights Leagues) wrote to Louis Michel, Chris Patten and Javier Solana, stressing that Article 2 of the Euro-Mediterranean agreement linking the EU to Israel since June 2000 stipulates that the reciprocal relations are based on the respect of human rights and democratic principles and that despite the clear position expressed on many occasions by the EU concerning the geographical scope of the EU/Israel agreement, the Israeli authorities still consider that the agreement covers all the territories managed by Israel, in outright contradiction of various UN Resolutions. The FIDH believes that Israel currently benefits from trade preferences that violate international law and therefore calls on the EU to adopt negative measures under the agreement, by for example suspending Israel's trade advantages. The FIDH President, Sidiki Kaba, wrote in the letter that if sanctions were not taken under the human rights clause in the current situation, one had the right to ask how bad violations had to get before negative measures are actually taken under the clause.