BRUSSELS (EJP)---Some 300 parliamentarians from 38 countries across Europe and several ministers are to attend the first Policy Conference of European Friends of Israel (EFI), a pan-European lobby organization aimed at deepening EU-Israel ties, Thursday and Friday in Paris.
“During the EU-Israel Association Council in Luxembourg in June, it was decided to launch a process of upgrading the bilateral relations. For this reason, we decided to bring together a maximum of parliamentarians from the European parliament but also from the member countries of the Council of Europe, to discuss ways to promote a closer partnership,” Dimitri Dombret, director of EFI, told EJP.
The conference is taking place in Paris as France currently chairs the rotating presidency of the European Union.
Guest speakers include Dalia Itzik, Speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European Parliament, Karel Schwarzenberg, Czech Foreign Minister, whose country will take over the EU presidency in January, and Luis Maria de Puig, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
During the conference, EFI will present to the EU presidency and the MPs the “Paris Declaration” for a closer and stronger partnership between Israel and the European Union.
The declaration “recognizes the common values that bind Europe and Israel and a shared cultural heritage reinforced by interests based upon friendship and mutual respect for human dignty, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely to be present at the conference gala dinner Thursday night, along with former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Romanian President Ion Illiescu and Noam Shalit, father of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who is detained by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since June 2006.
Based in Brussels, where the EU’s Executive Commission, Council of Ministers and European Parliament are headquartered, EFI was launched in 2006, at a time when relations between Israel and the Europeans have been rather tense in the framework of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Since then, Israel’s diplomatic relations with most European states and EU institutions have significantly improved, both sides speaking of a “new era” for bilateral ties.
The process of upgrading EU-Israel ties would include more regular high level politicial consultations and possible Israel integration into various sectors of the European single market.
Israel is linked to the EU by an association agreement granting it the highest level of relations available to non-member states.