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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Uncharted waters
By Dominic Coldwell
Shuttle diplomacy is trying and tiring. Hoping to foster an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York, French President Jacques Chirac met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. At the end of the day he complained, "I have received 60 invitations for meetings. I wasn't able to honour more than 10 or 15." Chirac's exertions complement recent efforts by the European Union to gain a greater say in world affairs. Only recently, the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, noted that the EU fields 40,000 diplomats in more than 1,500 missions across the globe. By comparison, the United States only staffs 300 missions with 15,000 personnel. Yet oddly, Europe's "considerable deployment of human resources does not always have results proportional to the [EU's] importance." To remedy the situation, France -- which now pilots the rotating presidency of the European Council of Ministers -- has targeted the Middle East as its new diplomatic stomping ground.
A recent gathering of EU foreign ministers in the French spa town of Evian, was therefore awash with rumours that the EU might marshal troops to support a possible Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. Christopher Patten, the EU's external affairs commissioner, later suggested the EU conclude further bilateral association agreements with the 12 Mediterranean signatories of the Barcelona Declaration in the hope of creating by 2010 a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area that might sustain the peace process economically. Apart from vague statements of intent, the European initiative, however, was disappointing. At Evian -- the region famous for bottling mineral water -- French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine washed himself of any responsibility, refusing to reiterate the Berlin Declaration of the March 1999 European Council with its promise for recognising a Palestinian state. Afraid of upsetting ongoing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Védrine's colleagues urged both sides to continue talking. They ostensibly brushed aside calls by Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel to ask Arafat to postpone the declaration of a Palestinian state in exchange for a firm guarantee "that once this period of time is over, whatever happens, we will recognise the Palestinian state."
"The 15 [EU member states] have recognised that the Palestinians have the right to proclaim a state when they want," Védrine asserted. "But now it is a question of whether it is opportune to repeat this." His reticence marks a somewhat surprising about-face for both France and the EU. In January, Solana told the London-based daily Al-Hayat that Palestinians "have an unconditional right to self-determination, including the possibility of a Palestinian state." At June's EU summit in Santa Maria da Feira, the European Council also reiterated its unequivocal support for the Berlin Declaration, stressing that "the viability of any resulting Palestinian state [must be] fully taken into account." Of course, there are sound reasons for equivocation. Reiterating the Berlin Declaration might have embarrassed the Palestinian Authority before it delayed its proclamation of nationhood once more. On the other hand, a European pledge to recognise Palestine after Arafat's latest deferral would have shored up the position of the Palestinian Authority (PA) with a firm commitment that might have rendered postponement more palatable to a Palestinian public pining for statehood.
Notwithstanding all talk of even-handedness, therefore, the EU seems to be inching closer toward the Israeli position. Asked whether she would reiterate support for relevant UN resolutions on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Anne Gazeau-Secret, a spokeswoman for the French foreign ministry, told reporters at Evian that "the most important thing is to succeed in finding a settlement." Gazeau-Secret denied suggestions that her reply constituted a retreat from international law, saying that "no one reasons exclusively on the basis of UN resolutions, not even the Palestinians." This is true, but it is also clear that Israel -- which has violated a whole battery of UN resolutions -- has more to gain from ignoring them than the Palestinians. Small wonder then that when President Hosni Mubarak visited France on the eve of the Evian summit, Chirac exuded French froideur over Egypt's support for the Palestinian position. While both countries were striving for peace in the Middle East, Chirac felt that "naturally, during this process, we encounter this or that difference of sentiment." And when Arafat adjourned the declaration of statehood last week, France welcomed the move on behalf of the EU.
Chirac's new tenor echoes increasingly close relations between the EU and Israel. For one, scientific collaboration between the EU and Israel has improved significantly in recent years. Both parties signed a Co-operation Agreement in 1975 and launched their first jointly-funded research projects in 1983. In 1996, Israel acceded to the Union's so-called Fourth Framework Programme of Research and Development (R&D) as the only non-European country enjoying a status equivalent to member states. Within three years, Israeli companies launched a total of 369 joint schemes with the EU. Since the Fifth Framework Programme was signed in March last year, 175 mutual projects have been registered. One year later, Israel also became a Co-operating State (COST) research partner and a member of the EU's Eureka research network. Close collaboration also extends to commerce. In 1998, trade with the EU accounted for 30.9 per cent ($7.18 billion) of Israeli exports and 48.5 per cent ($13.3 billion) of Israeli imports. Unlike other Mediterranean countries, Israel already dismantled industrial trade barriers with the EU in 1989 and entertains free movement of capital with the Union. In 1996, both parties also began deregulating agricultural trade. Discussions on further liberalisation of farm trade are expected to be resumed over the next few months. In June, Israel also acceded to an Association Agreement with the EU. And within the next three years, Tel Aviv is also hoping to bring its competition rules into line with existing EU regulations.
This is not to say that the EU is helping Israel alone. Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and the PA have all signed Association Agreements with the EU as part of the Barcelona Process. Nonetheless, Israel appears to be on a "more equal" footing than the rest. In 1994, the European Council of Essen for instance decided that Israel should enjoy "special status in its relations with the EU" on the basis of its economic strength. According to Guy Ledoux, the official in charge of Israel at the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Directorate of the European Commission, the political situation in the Middle East has prevented the establishment of close ties so far. However, "the implementation of this new Association Agreement is in a way a follow-up to the Essen Declaration," Ledoux said. "It is ... an important first step for this privileged relationship." One of these privileges includes the EU's benign refusal to reprimand Israel for repeated violations of human rights -- even though one of the conditions for concluding Association Agreements with Mediterranean countries is evidence of a clean human rights record. Unlike similar treaties with Tunisia and Morocco, the Association Agreement with Israel contains no clause prescribing respect for human rights because, in the words of Ledoux, "Israel is a democratic country." Even if "the treatment of [political] prisoners" leaves much to be desired, Israel is a special case because Israeli human rights violations give "rise to large internal debates in Israel, with sometimes positive results."
Unfortunately, Ledoux seems to have forgotten relevant EU documents on the topic. Otherwise, he surely would have recalled a report by the European Commission last October blaming Israel's repeated closure of the occupied territories -- in violation of the Paris Protocol on "Economic Relations between Israel and the PLO" of April 1994 -- for the impoverishment of Palestinian living standards. Ledoux also ignores February's EU Human Rights Watch Report, which criticises Israeli confiscation of Palestinian identity cards, the unequal distribution of water resources, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land and the continuing use of sleep deprivation, despite a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court last year that torture is unconstitutional. Nor does Ledoux seem to recall an EU Declaration in late May condemning "renewed Israeli settlement activity and road building, which is contrary to international law and which further complicates the search for peace." Fortunately for Tel Aviv, none of these findings affected the EU's commitment to grant Israel Association status a week later. On its website, the European Commission writes that Israel and the EU share a "common vision of society based on the same value of democracy, respect for human rights and the principles of a market economy." If anything, the EU has supplied further evidence that the latter two are never close bedfellows.
