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Israel proposes deal for EU science funding: report

13 November 2013, 13:47 CET
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(JERUSALEM) - Israel could join a European-funded research project that it had threatened to shun over guidelines banning financial dealing with Israeli settlements, the Haaretz daily reported Wednesday.

The paper said Israel gave Brussels a "final proposal for the wording of the agreement governing Israeli scientific cooperation and participation in the joint Horizon 2020 initiative," adding that EU officials were expected to give an answer by the end of the week.

Israel warned in August that it might refuse to participate in Horizon 2020, a seven-year, 70 billion-euro ($94 billion) research and innovation plan.

The Jewish state was to contribute 600 million euros to the project.

Israel was objecting to EU guidelines, published in July, which banned funding for and financial dealing with settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem starting from January 2014.

The guidelines angered Israel, because it would have to recognise in writing that the settlements -- which are illegal under international law -- are not part of the Jewish state in any future EU agreements.

But the latest and carefully-worded Israeli proposal could exempt it from making that distinction while "recognising" EU policy on settlements, according to Haaretz.

"A European diplomat said the new section would emphasise that Israeli recognition of the EU policy on prohibiting the funding of organisations in the settlements does not mean it will prejudge the permanent borders to be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," the paper wrote.

In addition, "Israel still refuses to allow the explicit mention of the new EU guidelines on the settlements in the agreement," it said, citing Israeli officials.

An EU spokesman would not comment on the report.

The European Union has reportedly come under US and Israeli pressure over its guidelines, even as Washington has urged Israel to halt settlement construction in order to bolster three-month-old peace talks with the Palestinians.

The building of new settlements on occupied Palestinian land is a key sticking point in the peace talks, which Kerry only revived with great difficulty in July after a nearly three-year hiatus.

Palestinian officials threatened to quit talks on Tuesday after Israel announced plans for 20,000 new settler homes in the West Bank.

But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled the plans after intense American criticism, as he sought to maintain good relations with Washington in order scuttle a possible nuclear deal with Iran.


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