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Israel Winning in Europe

(Ynet News) Arsen Ostrovsky - After the Palestinian vote at the UN, where the outcome was never seriously in doubt, headlines started flooding on how Israel "lost Europe." The reality however, could not be further from the truth, considering Israel's recent achievements. Diplomatically, the Palestinians failed where it really mattered at the UN - in the Security Council, which knocked back the application for statehood last year. Moreover, in May 2010 the OECD unanimously voted to invite Israel to join the organization, despite intensive lobbying by the Palestinians. Even traditionally hostile countries like Norway, Spain and Ireland voted in favor. In September 2011 Israel became the first non-European member of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, while in July 2012 the EU and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen their scientific cooperation in the fields of energy and water desalination. In October the European Parliament ratified the ACAA agreement (Agreement on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products) that recognizes Israel's industrial standards as equivalent to those in Europe, especially in healthcare. This will lead to facilitating imports of high-quality, low-cost Israeli medicines into the EU. In 2011 the EU was Israel's largest trading partner, with annual trade amounting to 29.4 billion Euros - an increase of 45% from 2009; and this came during the midst of an unprecedented financial crisis in Europe.
2012-12-14 00:00:00
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