Netanyahu orders continued talks with EU over funding crisis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday instructed senior officials to continue negotiations with the European Union over a multimillion euro research partnership at risk because of Brussels’ opposition to settlement expansion.

Earlier, the prime minister convened an emergency meeting to discuss the deepening rift with the EU over the matter.

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Science Minister Yaakov Peri, Education Minister Shai Piron and National Economic Council chief Eugene Kandel met with Netanyahu to discuss a growing crisis in talks with the EU over the latter’s Horizon 2020 scientific cooperation program.

If signed, the partnership with Belgium would fund Israeli research institutes and high-tech companies to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros over the next few years.

But new directives by the EU limit cooperation to Israeli projects within the Green Line.

According to Haaretz, Brussels rejected a number of proposals put forward by Israel to allow transferring funds from the Horizon 2020 initiative to projects over the Green Line.

Senior Economy and Science Ministry officials said that if Israel doesn’t sign the agreement in the coming weeks, it will miss out on most of the funds.

The European Parliament earlier this week formally approved Horizon 2020, the European Union’s funding program for research and innovation for 2014 through 2020, and EU state ministers are set to approve and finalize the plan in the coming weeks. Despite being outside Europe, Israel was invited to join the initiative.

According to senior officials, requests for grants have a higher likelihood of being approved if submitted in the first 10 days, Haaretz reported.

EU guidelines published in July mandate a denial of European funding to, and cooperation with, Israeli institutions based or operating over the Green Line, and a requirement that all future agreements between Israel and the EU include a clause in which Israel accepts the position that none of the territory over the Green Line belongs to Israel.

Jerusalem fiercely rejected the directive, saying it refuses to sign any further agreements with the EU that include such clauses, and threatened to cancel its participation in Horizon 2020. Among other things, Jerusalem feared that the guidelines would entail a boycott of any Israeli institution that operates beyond the Green Line even if it is based in Israel proper, such as the Hebrew University or Hadassah Hospital, a fear EU officials say is unjustified.

Raphael Ahren and Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report.