At a meeting held last week with Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce president Uriel Lynn & EU Ambassador to Israel Ramiro Cibrian Uzal it was agreed to further advance bilateral trade relations on the basis of the European Neighbourhood Policy:
The European Commission proposed late last year the first Action Plan for Israel within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The Action Plan, which had been developed in close consultations with Israel throughout 2004, is a political document laying out the strategic objectives of cooperation between Israel and the EU. It is tailor-made to reflect Israel’s political and economic situation.
Israel and the EU will strive to intensify political, security, economic, scientific and cultural relations, and shared responsibility in conflict prevention and conflict resolution.
The Israel Action Plan is one of seven adopted by the European Commission today. The other partner countries for which Action Plans have been adopted are Moldova, Ukraine, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
Ambassador Ramiro Cibrian Uzal invited Lynn to participate in the 10th anniversary of the 1995 Barcelona process where governments of 27 countries, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission (the Partnership) established the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) with the overall objective of turning the Euro-Mediterranean basin into an area of dialogue, exchange and co-operation guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity.
On a multilateral level, they adopted the Barcelona Declaration, composed of three pillars for developing the main elements of a political and security partnership, an economic and financial partnership, and a partnership in social, cultural and human affairs. The best known aspect of the Declaration is the creation of a free trade zone by the year 2010.
However, the signatory Partners have also committed themselves to respect a number of human rights principles, in particular:
To act in accordance with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; To develop the rule of law and democracy in their political systems; To respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and guarantee the effective legitimate exeercise of such rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of association; To respect and ensure diversity and pluralism in their societies, promote tolerance between different groups in society and combat manifestations of intolerance, racism and xenophobia.
Lynn described the actions taken by the Federation to better trade relations with the EU and emphasized the importance of the Euro-chambers to foster trade relations between Israel and EU members. To this end the Federation is promoting trade delegation to visit Austria in early May at the invitation of Mr.Christoph Leitl, president of the Eurochambers and Prהsident, Wirtschaftskammer ײsterreich.
