BRUSSELS (EJP)---The European Commission president Jose-Manuel Barroso has congratulated Israel on the 60th anniversary of its independence.

The head of the EU’s executive body said in a message on Thursday that Israel's significance for Europeans went "beyond normal forms of cooperation with a close neighbour."

"Both the European Union and the State of Israel were born out of the same great convulsion of the Second World War and the Shoah,” he said. "In its 60 years as an independent state, Israel has had to contend with many challenges. Yet through it all it has continued to adapt, develop and prosper.”

"We now take almost for granted impressive Israeli achievements in fields such as science and technology, industry, agriculture, education and the arts. In retrospect, we can only wonder at how all this was achieved under such difficult circumstances," Barroso said in his message.

He noted that the EU and Israel were already cooperating on a range of issues such as climate change, counter-terrorism "and the fight against racism and anti-Semitism".

External Relations European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who is in charge of the European Neighborhood Policy, stressed that the European Union is Israel's main trading partner and that Isral is the only non-European country to participate in the EU's Research and Development programme.

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