The visit of the new Foreign Minister represents a fresh start in the relations with the Israeli government and an opportunity to have a comprehensive and forward looking discussion on issues of common interest,’’ said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

 

Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek: ”I think it is now high time that we in Brussels and in the EU we start discussing how to upgrade the EU-Israel relations. We have a new Israeli government and we should seize this moement and take the EU-Israel relations to the next level.”

‘’We want to reinforce and deepen the EU’s relations with Israel,’’ said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.

Several EU Foreign Ministers will plead in favor of reconvening the EU-Israel Association Council, the highest political level of the relations between the two sides, during a meeting of the EU Foreign Affaird Council on Monday in Brussels.

The Council, which was due do meet annually, has not been convened since 2012 because of disagreements on Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The new Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is to meet his 27 EU counterparts on Monday during a lunch  discussion in the margins of the Foreign Affairs Council at the invitation of EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell.

Among the countries that will propose reconvening the EU-Israel Association Council are Austria, Romania, Germany and the Czech Republic. ‘’We want to reinforce and deepen the EU’s relations with Israel,’’ said Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told reporters as he arrived Monday morning for the Foreign Affairs Council meeting.

Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek said: ”I am really happy we can meet with Foreign Minister Lapid over lunch to discuss the situation in the Mideast.”  ”I think it is now high time that we in Brussels and in the EU we start discussing how to upgrade the EU-Israel relations. We have a new Israeli government and we should seize this moement and take the EU-Israel relations to the next level,”  Kulhanek said.

”The EU-Israel Association Council has not met since 2012 and I believe that there is no time to waist and we should convene this body,” he stressed.

The Czech minister also raised the question of aid to Gaza. ”Everybody is eager to get the Middle East peace process back on track. There is one issue I want to raise, it’s the issue of our foreign aid to Gaza. Clearly, no one doubt the need to help the people of Gaza, however we should make sure that our foreign aid is being misused.” ”We should really redouble our effort to prevent goods for reconstruction being turned into homemade rockets,” he added.

Upon his arrival in Brussels on Sunday, Lapid, who is also Alternate Prime Minister,  met with Borrell for bilateral talks. ‘’ The visit of the new Foreign Minister represents a fresh start in the relations with the Israeli government and an opportunity to have a comprehensive and forward looking discussion on issues of common interest,’’ said Borrell.

According to the EU’ external service, Borrell and Lapid ‘’listening to each other’s mutual expectations, had a wide-ranging, honest exchange on EU-Israel bilateral relations, regional issues and on how the dialogue with the Palestinians can be moved forward.’’

‘’They discussed the importance to enhance EU-Israel relations and considered how to address together existing challenges in order to achieve this common goal.’’