Dublin,
14/03/2024: a coalition of 206 groups of European civil society,
20 of which based in Ireland, he sent a letter to the
EU Commission, the EU Council and the European Parliament, asking for the
suspension of the association agreement with Israel in consideration
of the violation of human rights by that state.
In the month of January, in consideration of the cause of South Africa against Israeli government relating to genocide, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has established that some of the accusations indicate that the genocide could be plausible in specific cases.
There ICJ has ordered the Israeli government to take all measures in its power to prevent acts
As part of article II of the Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
There Coalition believes that the fact that ICJ has considered plausible the accusations of South Africa and has issued provisional measures against the Israeli government should raise serious alarm bells in the EU. However, the Israeli economy continues to enjoy access privileged to the EU market through the association agreement UE-Israel.
There Coalition believes that civil society must join in asking for the suspension of the EU-Israel Agreement, and that it is time that the EU keeps the his commitment to human rights and democratic principles and undertaken concrete actions to face the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
There Letter of the EU coalition stresses that before the current ones hostility, the Palestinians have faced systematic violations of rights, including expropriation of land, forced evictions, demolition owned and restrictions on the movement, which persist since 1948.
John Colreavy of the Comhlámh Trade Justice Group, one of the Irish groups that signed the letter, underlined: " AND imperative that the EU demonstrates its commitment to human rights suspend the EU-Israel Association agreement and considering Israel responsible for his actions. What is currently happening in Gaza is the consequence of a political and moral failure of the community international to undertake any significant action for obliged the state of Israel to comply with the rules of the law international humanitarian “.
Colreavy concluded: " The flu EU economic requires immediate action to suspend the agreement, as allowed by international law. Civil society of the EU asks for decisive steps to consider the Israeli government responsible and stop the humanitarian catastrophe in progress in Gaza “.
* Adapted from
Bilaterals.org
.
Who
The complete text of the letter of associations.
EU-Israel Commercial Relations. Facts and figures
The legal basis of EU commercial relations with Israel is the
EU-Israel Association Agreement
,
entered into force in June 2000. The agreement aims to provide a picture
legal and institutional for political dialogue and cooperation
economic between the EU and Israel.
Israel
It is the 25th among the major commercial partners of the EU, and has
represented 0.8% of the total exchange of union goods in
2022. It is also among the main commercial partners of the EU in the area
Mediterranean.
The EU is the main commercial partner of Israel, and represented the 28.8% of its trade in goods in 2022. 31.9% of imports Israeli comes from the EU and 25.6% of the country's exports are directed to the EU.
The
total exchanges of goods between the EU and Israel in 2022 amounted to
46.8 billion euros. The imports of the EU from Israel reached
17.5 billion euros and consisted mainly in machinery and
means of transport (7.6 billion euros, 43.5%), chemicals (3.5
billions of euros, 20.1%) and other artifacts (1.9 billion euros,
11.1%). The exports of the EU to Israel amounted to 12.2
billions of euros and mainly consisted of machinery and means of
transport (12.3 billion euros, 41.9%), chemicals (5.1 billion
Euro, 17.6%) and other artifacts (3.5 billion euros, 12.1%).
The Bilateral exchanges of services between the EU and Israel reached 16.7 billions of euros in 2021. The EU imports of services came to 6.9 billion euros, while exports drew 9.8 billion of Euro.
The EU and Israel
The
commercial relations between the EU and Israel are governed by an area
of free trade that is part of the EU-Israel Association Agreement
of 2000.
Negotiations for the opening of further agricultural exchanges between the EU and Israel ended in 2008. Such
agreement
It has been in force since January 2010.
In 2012 the EU and Israel concluded a
agreement on the evaluation of compliance and acceptance of industrial products
(Acaa)
on pharmaceutical products. Facilitates bilateral exchanges, eliminates the
commercial barriers and provides mutual recognition of the
pharmaceutical certification.
Commercial and economic relations between the EU and Israel are further strengthened
from the Euromediterranean agreement on aviation
(The
so -called agreement on open skies), which entered fully in
vigor in 2018 and further opened the UE-Israel air travel.
The Revision of EU commercial policy of the February 2021 has ruled that the EU will propose a new initiative of Sustainable investment to interested partners in Africa and in the neighborhood southern EU.
Financial support
•
The
European neighborhood policy
provide
Political and financial assistance in Israel. Due to the level
Advanced economic development of Israel, EU funds in the field
of the European neighborhood tool (Eni) are mainly used
For twinning and public administration projects (Taiex) in
education, telecommunications and management sectors of
waters. It is an average of 1.8 million euros per year.
•
As part of the EU's multi -year financial framework for the period
2021-2027, the EU will adopt a new wide-ranging tool for the
Financial cooperation: the neighborhood tool, development and
International cooperation (nodes). Nici will replace the European
Neighbourhood Instrument (Eni) and will contribute to future cooperation
UE-Israel.
• Further information on the EU support is available at the website of Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations .
Israel in the southern neighborhood
Israel is one of the partners of the EU southern neighborhood (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine **, Syria and Tunisia).
The EU he established his privileged partnership with the countries of the bank Eastern and southern Mediterranean already in 1995, with the launch of the EUROMEDiterranean partnership at the Barcelona Conference, in order to create an area of peace, stability and economic prosperity "which defends i democratic values and human rights ". (!!! ed)
** This designation is not understood as recognition of a state Palestinian and does not affect the individual positions of the Member States in the field
Taken from the European Commission website.