Brussels, 14/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Jerusalem on Thursday, the EU/Israel Association Committee held its fourth meeting which mainly focused on the action plan for Israel within the framework of the new EU Neighbourhood Policy. EU and Israeli senior officials were to study the conditions for implementing the plan as well as monitoring methods, the working agenda and priority actions to be agreed and submitted for the approval of the next ministerial session. They were also to decide on the establishment of specialised sub-committees (six in principle) which will be entrusted with the task of ensuring the practical implementation of common guidelines. The prospect of establishing a new financial instrument that would flank the Neighbourhood Policy was also the subject of an exchange of views.
The meeting also discussed various concrete measures, such as the establishment of cooperation in the field of statistics, liberalisation of direct trade reciprocity and the coordination of triangular EU-Israel-Palestine trade as well as various points relating to facilitation of Palestinian trade and the question of cumulation of origin and Israel's integration in the pan-European cumulation of origin system, the trade in services, farm products and the food industry, and intellectual property. Israel was expected to provide elements to prove that it has complied with its commitment of 10 May 2004 to establish a new structure for more transparent pricing for the trade in second hand cars. The current structure is thought to be at the origin of fraudulent practice deplored by Brussels and imputed to “unregistered traders”.
Finally, both parties exchanged views on various political issues (human rights, democratic practices and the fight against terrorism) and on developments in the region. One point should be the subject of special scrutiny: better definition of Israel's status within the regional UN Commission for Western Europe given that, to date, Israel has not been able to appear among the members of the similar committee for Western Asia, which includes Arab countries in particular.