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21日の記事ですが、本件関連記事が見当たらなかったので投稿しておきます。
Analysis: Israel weighing EU membership
By Martin Walker
UPI Chief International Correspondent
From the International Desk
Published 5/21/2003 1:16 PM
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WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- The visiting delegation from the European
Union was startled this week when Israel Foreign Minister Silvan
Shalom said his government was weighing an application to join the EU.
"It doesn't mean he is preparing the dossier for applying tomorrow,"
an Israeli spokesman said. "In principle, the minister thinks a
possibility exists for Israel to join the EU, since Israel and Europe
share similar economies and democratic values."
Shalom broached the subject Tuesday, but there is no immediate
prospect of this happening, since under EU rules, new members must
have no outstanding border disagreements with their neighbors. The
incoming new members from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary and
Romania, had to resolve long-standing disputes to clear their path for
entry.
But if and when Israel does achieve a peace settlement with Syria and
Lebanon and the Palestinians (it already has peace treaties with Egypt
and Jordan), Israeli membership could make a great deal of sense for
Israel and the EU alike.
The EU is already deeply, indeed inextricably involved in the Middle
East, and not just as a member of "the Quartet" of the United States,
EU, Russia and the United Nations that have jointly drawn up the "road
map" to a peace agreement. The EU is one of the main customers for
Middle Eastern energy exports, and under the Barcelona Agreement, has
forged a series of trade and cooperation agreements with the countries
that border the Mediterranean Sea.
Turkey, a strategic Middle East player and an Islamic though legally
secular country, has been formally accepted as an EU candidate
member. North African Arabs now account for 10 percent of France's
population, and the French and British colonial heritage in the Middle
East gives them strong links to the region.
For Israel, EU membership would mean an end to the regional isolation
it suffers, and a strong security guarantee, along with all the
economic advantages of the vast EU market. Joining the EU would
presumably mean joining the euro, shielding Israel from the kinds of
currency crises that have hit the shekel since the intifada battered
its important tourism industry.
For the EU, Israel's impressive high-tech industry could be useful,
but any economic advantages to Israeli membership would have to be
balanced against the wider political costs to the EU, unless the
Jewish state's relationship with its Arab neighbors is
transformed. Even then, those European countries like France that
already sneer at Britain as "America's Trojan horse" (and the German
media that sneers at Poland as "America's Trojan donkey") might
hesitate before admitting another such pro-American member.
There are voices in the EU that support the idea, including one member of the EU Parliament delegation that was told of Israel's deliberations Tuesday evening.
Marco Pannella, an Italian member of the European Parliament and
president of the Transnational Radical Party, is promoting the
initiative. He told reporters in Israel that while support was growing
in the European Parliament for Israel to join the EU it could take "up
to a decade" to complete the process.
The EU and Israel already have a formal Cooperation Agreement,
ratified by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, three years ago. Its
provisions include regular political dialogue, liberalization of trade
in goods and services, the free movement of capital and competition
rules, the strengthening of economic cooperation on the widest
possible basis and cooperation on social and cultural matters. (Israel
has long taken part, for example, in the annual Eurovision Song
Contest.)
One possible motive for the Israeli foreign minister's announcement is
to repair the difficult relations with the EU, repeatedly accused by
Israeli officials and ministers of being partial toward the
Palestinians. Israeli diplomats also noted that the initiative shows
Israel's commitment to peace.
The Israeli foreign minister's statement also coincided with a report
by the Washington-based Cato Institute think tank, which suggested an
important geopolitical aspect to Israeli membership.
"Signaling to the Israelis and the Palestinians that a peaceful
resolution to their conflict could be a ticket for admission into the
EU, would be more than just enticing them with economic rewards," the
Cato report said. "Conditioning Israel's entry into the EU on its
agreement to withdraw from the occupied territories and dismantle the
Jewish settlements there, would strengthen the hands of those Israelis
who envision their state not as a militarized Jewish ghetto but as a
Westernized liberal community."
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030521-112245-2333r
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