BRUSSELS (EJP)---A meeting of the annual EU-Israel association Council, which was scheduled for Monday in Brussels, has been postponed but EU sources insisted that the change of plans has no political meaning.
According to a EU spokeswoman, the meeting was postponed until next month because EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, had just visited Israel and Gaza this week.
"We did not want to have a duplication, it's not the first time we postpone an Association Council, it's nothing extraordinary," an official said.
Ashton's spokesman Lutz Guellner told EJP the postponement of the meeting shouldn't be interpreted as a 'diplomatic reaction' to Israel's decision to build new housing units in East Jerusalem.
An Israeli source told EJP the postponement was agreed upon jointly during Ashton’s meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
The Association Council is the central body governing relations between EU and Israel. It regularly examines the bilateral relations and formulates proposals for strengthening cooperation.
Despite the program change, the Israeli Foreign Minister will be in Brussels on Monday to have bilateral meetings with several of his EU colleagues, including German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on the sidelines of the EU Council of Foreign Affairs.
He is also to meet with the Belgian Jewish community.