BICOM

According to reports, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani said this week during a visit to Israel, that the European Union (EU) will make every effort to resolve a dispute on funding guidelines which has cast doubt over Israel’s participation in the EU’s flagship research project.

EU and Israeli representatives have been negotiating to find a way for Israel to join the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, which aims to create jobs and fuel economic growth. Israel is the only non-EU country to be invited as a full participant in the programme and has until the end of November to sign up.

The EU adopted new funding guidelines in July which specify that future EU grants and prizes should exclude Israeli entities based in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

However, Haaretz reports that Tajani this week relayed a personal message from EU Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton pledging that “every effort would be made” to find a diplomatic solution to the issue. Israel’s Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri, who met with Tajani, told a Knesset committee that “based on what I know, there is genuine readiness on the part of the EU to reach an arrangement on this issue.”

Tajani,  the EU Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, was visiting Israel heading a trade mission joined by 65 European representatives of companies and trade associations from 17 EU countries. During his visit he signed a number of bilateral agreements including a “letter of intent” on industrial cooperation.