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Summary The launch of the new activities, to be endorsed at high-level EU-Israel talks in Brussels.
The European Union looks poised to strengthen ties with Israel by approving 60 new cooperation activities, despite its recent denunciation of Israeli policy, diplomats said.The launch of the new activities, to be endorsed at high-level EU-Israel talks in Brussels on Tuesday, has angered critics. They say it is politically inopportune and clumsy, condoning the very Israeli actions EU foreign ministers condemned in a strongly worded statement issued on May 14.In the May statement, the blocs 27 foreign ministers said the gathering pace of settlement building, settler extremism and the ill-treatment of Palestinians threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.The new move, details of which were outlined to AFP at the weekend, involves closer cooperation on transport and energy, and enhanced ties with nine EU agencies, including the police body Europol and the European Space Agency.The package, covering up to 60 new activities, will be on the agenda of Tuesdays annual meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council, which manages a bilateral agreement that came into force in 2000. But one European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the stronger ties indicated the continuing double standards of the blocs ties with Israel.Once again were hearing critical words on the one hand but its business as usual on the other, he said. EU statements on the peace process are no more than theatre.Officials in Brussels stressed however that the 60 new areas of cooperation in 15 fields were a mere follow-up to a 2005 action plan and did not represent an upgrade in EU-Israeli relations.There is absolutely no change in our policy, said one EU official, who asked to remainanonymous. EU policy was always to continue implementing the existing action plan with Israel. And In Israel Paul Hirschson, deputy spokesman at Israels foreign ministry, made a similar point.
