The EU’s 27 foreign ministers are scheduled to meet their Israeli counterparts on 23 June for an EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meeting which is aimed at deepening the bloc’s cooperation with Israel as well as nine other southern partners including Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.
“The objective is for Israeli representatives to be present at the meeting,” a senior Israeli official told Euronews, adding that the participation of Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign affairs minister “is still to be confirmed”.
But the meeting comes at a time of unprecedented cooling of relations between the EU and Israel following the country’s blockage of food from entering into Gaza and after Palestinian health officials and witnesses alleged recent shootings by Israeli soldiers of Palestinians headed for humanitarian aid sites. The Israeli army has said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots.
The meeting also comes after the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas stated in late May that the bloc would examine if Israel has violated its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which defines the trading and diplomatic relations between both sides.
No timeline has been fixed for the review, which will be conducted by the EU’s external action service (EEAS). Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein has “completely” rejected the direction taken in Kallas’ statement, saying it reflected “a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing”.
The Netherlands, which tabled the move and is considered a firm ally of Israel, said that Israel’s “humanitarian blockade” on Gaza, where a limited quantity of critical supplies entered for the first time in more than eleven weeks on Monday, is in “violation of international humanitarian law” and therefore of Article 2.
An EU official said that the 23 June meeting involving Israel will not be a forum to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza but a routine gathering conducted under the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood partnership, which is meant to strengthen existing cooperation with 10 southern neighbours on a wide range of issues, including governance, climate change, economic development, energy and migration. In addition, the EU is Israel’s biggest trade partner, with the trading relationship valued at more than €45 billion each year.
The EU’s Southern Neighbourhood partnership derives from the 1995 Barcelona Declaration which committed to turn the Mediterranean into “an area of dialogue, exchange and cooperation, guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity”, according to an official Commission document. In 2020, trade between the EU and the region represented €149.4 billion and the bloc’s imports were worth €58.0 billion.
In 2021, the EU 27 agreed to strengthen their partnership with the Southern Neighbourhood following the COVID-19 pandemic and meet their counterparts every year. Their cooperation is based on “good governance, human rights and fundamental freedoms promotion and protection, democratic institutions and the rule of law”, according to 2021 European Council summit conclusions.
One of the last EU-Southern Neighbourhood ministerial meetings took place in 2022 in Barcelona, where participants discussed regional cooperation as well as the war in Ukraine.
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