Israel seeks to counter EU research directive

According to the Gatestone Institute (a think tank chaired by John Bolton, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations), a multi-billion dollar lever to counter a European Union directive to bar Israeli communities and entities operating beyond the pre-1967 lines from EU funding may be exercised by Israeli negotiators.

The move comes as Israel has threatened to walk away from EU’s €70.2bn Horizon 2020 science and innovation programme, where it is the sole non-EU technology partner, unless a compromise can be reached.

The European Union’s 2014 guidelines, published in July, limit interaction with Israeli entities and impose financial sanctions on Israeli communities beyond the pre-1967 lines. The guidelines “reiterate the long-held position that bilateral agreements with Israel do not cover the territory that came under Israel’s administration in June 1967,” the EU said.

Israel’s immediate response, via Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, was to order the Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot to suspend several joint Israeli-EU projects across Judea and Samaria and to deny EU officials the permits needed to travel freely between Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In a research note, the Gatestone Institute’s Senior Fellow Soeren Kern said: “The EU and Israel both stand to benefit from Israel’s involvement in the lucrative program, which begins on 1 January, 2014 and will run for a period of seven years.

“Israel — the only non-EU country that has been invited to join Horizon 2020 — is expected to invest €600m in the program and receive €900m in inbound research grants and other investments. For its part, the EU will benefit from Israeli research and technology, which is widely believed to surpass the capabilities of many EU member states.”

According to the Institute, EU and Israeli officials met in Jerusalem on September 10 and then in Brussels on September 12 to discuss a compromise, but none could be reached. The task now falls to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to raise the issue directly with Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, by mid-November, ahead of the January 1 start of both the sanctions and the Horizons 2020 programme.