Business
Dialogue
During the negotiations on the Action Plan
of the ENP in 2005 Israel and the EU agreed to assemble a forum of industry leaders to
provide a framework for enhancing commercial ties on the overall European
level. From the European side the Forum is co-chaired by Matthias
Doepfner, CEO of the German media group Axel Springer, and from the Israeli
side by Hi-Tech entrepreneur Mr. Yossi Vardi. The Forum's first meeting was
held in 2007 under the auspices of the Israeli Industry, Trade & Labor
Minister and the European Commissioners for Trade and Industry and continued to
be held annually until 2011.
Dispute
Settlement Mechanism
The
Association Agreement mentions the issue of conflict resolution but only very
briefly and not specifically and without outlining the relevant procedures. Therefore,
the aim is to reach a new Dispute Settlement Mechanism that will be specific to
the trade field. In 2007, discussions on a
bilateral agreement of this kind began between Israel and EU, but due
to differences that cannot be bridged at this stage
the parties have not yet reached an agreement.
Services
The EU is
very interested in promoting negotiations in the field of trade in services
and the right to establish companies in all sectors. The intention is the
implementation of Article 29 of the Association Agreement, but the main motive
for the negotiations is the belief that it is possible to reach an agreement in
this issue which will be beneficial to Mediterranean countries – this based on
a survey by the World Bank which reached just such a conclusion.
During the Conference
of Trade Ministers held in Lisbon in October 2007, Israel announced that it is
ready to begin discussions with the EU on a Bilateral Agreement on Services. Furthermore,
several discussions were held between 2008-2009 with the intent to exchange
ideas and reach concrete proposals.
Parallel
negotiations on TISA (Trade in Services Agreement) are under way among the 25
companies of the WTO, including Israel and the EU.
R&D
Framework Program
Israel
is the only non-European member of the R&D Framework Program of the EU. The
cooperation started in 1996 with the accession of Israel to the Fourth
Framework Program (FP4) and is the flagship of Israeli-European cooperation. Participation in the program gives universities, researchers and companies,
access to funds and grants for projects in many different fields ranging from
nanotechnology, information technology and telecommunications to energy and
health.
The
current R&D program is called Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation program ever with nearly
€80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). Israel's participation in the program is managed by ISERD – The Israel Europe R&D Directorate. According to ISERD,
Israeli institutions have so far received
research grants of about €134.5 million.
Galileo
Galileo is a new generation program of the European
satellite navigation system (equivalent to the American GPS and the Russian
GLONASS) funded by European governments. Israel
joined the project in 2004 being one out of two non-European countries who are
members (the second one is China).
Participation
in the program enabled some Israeli companies to participate in European Space
Agency tenders for developing parts of the Galileo system. Israel regards its
membership in the program as strategic importance of developing ties with
Europe in these fields.
During the visit of Commissioner for Industry Tajani in
November 2011, a joint statement was signed with the Minister of Industry, in
which the parties agree on continued cooperation in the program. In this
context, it was decided to establish an information center on Galileo issues in
Israel and the establishment of a Galileo ground station in Israel.
SESAR
SESAR
is a large scale project aimed to upgrade ATM (Air Traffic Management) systems
throughout the EU, Switzerland and the EEA countries. This project will include
development and research in the field of command and control systems which will
include satellites, unmanned aircraft, and sophisticated telecommunication systems.
Israel
has recently decided to join the project as a consortium of Israeli companies
under the management of the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Labor. This means
Israel will strive to join the Joint Undertaking which will manage the project
development phase.
Chemicals
Exports of chemicals amounted to almost 40%
of Israeli exports to the EU in 2014.
The
main legislation on these is the REACH regulation, which came into force in 2007
and deals with the requirements of registration, authorization and assessment
of a very large number of chemicals produced or imported by the EU, and the CLP
regulation, which came into force in 2009 and deals with requirements for
classification, labeling and packaging of chemical substances and mixtures.
Also,
additional legislation is continually being monitored in the field of
electronic waste, transportation of hazardous materials, pesticides,
fertilizers and more.
The
EU Environmental policies are getting more and more complex making
it very difficult for small companies to cope with the costs of registration
and licensing for their products in order to export them to the EU countries.