Current Israeli Perspectives on EU-Mediterranean Relations

Abstract

  The by now old EMP did not address at all the needs of Israel, a post-industrial society with many features corresponding to a small-sized European country such as Ireland, Denmark or Finland.. In the eyes of Israelis, it was a North-South development-throughtrade program and if it has failed it is for two reasons. First and foremost, because the EU had excluded from the association agreements agricultural goods and labour-intensive services and the cumulation of origin rules have taken a lot of time to be introduced; and second, because the Arab members of the EMP have failed to reform economically and politically. Israel is not to blame for all this. Regarding the new UfM project, Israel has an interest in doing the most it can to have it succeed, once it has become clear that the European Neighbourhood Policy of 2003 is here to stay. In the context of the UfM, Israel will probably have a tendency to privilege many, rather than only a few projects. The more and more "micro" the projects are the less likely can they be politicized.