‘EU more secure and more innovative thanks to Israel’

“Europe is more secure, more innovative and more relevant on the world stage thanks to the tools Israel provides: from unmanned aerial vehicles to intelligence; from energy to pharmaceuticals; and from particle accelerators to high tech start-up,” a new report maintains. 

The report by Oren Kessler, entitled Added Value: Israel’s Strategic Worth to the European Union and its Member States is a joint project of the Henri Jackson Society, a London-based think-tank, and the Friends of Israel Initiative, an organization based in Madrid and headed by former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar.

“In the report we sought to determine to what extend Israel represents a strategic asset to the EU and that by virtually all key parameters, Europe is better off with Israel than without it,” Kessler, a Fellow Research at the Henri Jackson Society, told a meeting of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Israel chaired by MEP Bastiaan Belder from Holland.

“For years a small but growing anti-Israel campaign has waged tireless assaults on Israel’s reputation, portraying it not only as a liability and burden to Europe but also as an illegitimate state that needs to be isolated and boycotted,” he said.

Europeans often base their support of Israel as a Western-oriented democracy sharing the same values: free speech, human rights, women’s rights, minority rights. Another argument often heard is that Europe has a special responsibility to the survival of the Jewish people given the continent dark history of anti-Semitism that culminated with the Holocaust.

Many Israelis today feel Europe is anti-Israel because they regularly read in newspapers about disagreement on settlement policy. But most of them have no idea about the very sensitive security bilateral relations or the scope of the economic relationship and of scientific and scholarly exchange. The report goes beyond the values and history and rather consider strategic advantages Europe gains from his links to Israel, especially in three key arenas : security, economics and science and technology.  Contrary to news reports of EU-Israel disagreements – such as last year’s European Commission directives to label Israeli goods from the West Bank – by the most important measures, the EU’s relations with Israel are closer than at any time in the Union’s history.

With nearly €30 billion in bilateral trade (€17 bn EU exports to Israel, €12.7bn EU imports from the EU), the EU is Israel’s top source of imports, while Israel is Europe’s leading trade partner in the Eastern Mediterranean. 35% of Israeli imports come from the EU. And while the European economy continues to falter, EU exports to Israel are growing by roughly 5% a year.

The EU enjoys a positive balance of trade with Israel, amounting to €4.3bn.  The report also shows that Israel provides invaluable counter-terrorism intelligence that keeps Europeans secure, while Israeli military technology protects EU troops in the field in Afghanistan, Mali and beyond with 50 % of Israeli drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAV) being exported to Europe, mainly to Britain, Germany, Poland, Holland and Spain.  Israel also conducts joint training exercises with European militaries nearly every year within the NATO framework.  “Few Europeans are aware that Israeli technology safeguards such iconic symbols as Buckingham Palace, Heathrow Airport, the Eiffel Tower and the Vatican,” Kessler added.

A world leader in high-tech innovation, Israel is vital in keeping Europe competitive in science and technological. Since 1996, Israel has been the only non-European country associated with the EU Framework Programs, the guiding blueprints for European scientific research and technological development. 1,406 Israelis participated in the last program, the Seventh Framework Programs. And since January 2014, Israel is part of Horizon 2020, the new flagship EU program for research and innovation.

Israel’s economy is not only one of the world’s most dynamic but has weathered the global economic crisis far better than most of the Western economies. In 2010, Israel joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the grouping of advanced world developed economies. Israel’s growth rates are the envy of much of the rest of the OECD. Unemployment is at record lows (4,9%), inflation is under control and the country’s high tech sector continues to attract admiration worldwide.

Moreover, the report notes, “Israel has discovered large natural-gas fields in recent years which could have enormous consequences for Europe eager to wean itself off energy from unreliable, authoritarian regimes like Russia and the Persian Gulf states.  In its conclusions and recommendations, the report says that given the evidence of benefits for the EU from its relationship with Israel, a full upgrade in relations “would grant an official, symbolic imprimatur to the growing Europe-Israel relationship”.

“It is also essential to push back against determined and growing attempts to boycott Israel in certain fields of European commerce, academia and culture. Not only is Israel’s relationship with the EU and its member states closer than commonly portrayed but, in the final analysis, it represents a strategic asset to the European bloc and its constituent states. At this critical juncture in its history, the European Union will be unable to emerge safe, prosperous, innovative and influential without strong state-to-state relations at home and healthy alliances with strategic partners in its neighborhood. It should start by further recognizing and enhancing its critical strategic relationship with the State of Israel,” the report reads.

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