In the framework of the ongoing effort to strengthening ties between Israel and the European Union, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will hold numerous dialogs with EU heads of state in New York next week tied to the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

“We have witnessed a very significant improvement of the Israel-EU relations during the last year”, Oded Eran, Israel’s ambassador to the EU, told EJP.

“This was obvious even before the disengagement of Israel from Gaza last month”, he added.

EU neighbourhood policy

He cited as a “significant step” the agreement earlier this year to designate Israel a “friend” of the EU in accordance with the organization’s “neighbourhood policy”, aimed at creating a ring of sympathetic, non-member nations around EU borders.

The intensification of the dialogue was further signaled this week by the visit to Brussels of Ron Prosor, Israel’s Foreign Ministry director general.

Ron Prosor, Israel’s Foreign Ministry director general

Prosor was invited to meet the EU’s Political Security Committee, charged with playing a key role in the shaping of the EU common foreign and security policy, and comprising senior ambassadors from the 25 EU member states and European Commission representatives.

The visit to Israel in August of Javier Solana, EU’s top foreign policy official, and trips this week by the French and Spanish foreign ministers furnish additional evidence of the current EU-Israeli thaw.

According to Israeli sources, Prosor met with senior EU officials to address the aftermath of Israel’s pullout from Gaza, European support of the Palestinian infrastructure and institutions, the forthcoming Palestinian elections, Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, and the European neighbourhood policy.

“I hope that the EU will be able now to show a more balanced position on key Israeli-Palestinian issues”, Oded Eran said. “We want also to push strongly bilateral relations between Israel and the EU in all fields”, he added.

Sharon invited in Barcelona

According to diplomatic sources in Jerusalem, Spanish foreign minister Miguel Moratinos has invited Sharon to a November conference in Barcelona marking the 10th year of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, also known as the Barcelona process, an initiative designed to encourage dialogue and cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean theatre. Spain hopes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will also attend the conference.