The European Union has agreed to push for closer ties with Egypt even as it remained split over whether to move closer to Israel, officials in Luxembourg said. “Enhancing the relations means you work with the EU and you put the relations on a higher level, the maximum you can attain without acquiring membership,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told journalists after talks with EU counterparts.
 “I’m sure that next year we would have that final agreement on the enhancement of relations between Egypt and the EU as long as our commitment and the EU commitment is there to push for it,” he said. The EU “supports Egyptian efforts to work on closer ties ... (and) has decided to go a step further to enhancing relations,” Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, acknowledged.

Egypt is a key member of the EU’s “neighbourhood policy” and the current co-chair of its new Union for the Mediterranean. In 2008, Egypt asked the EU to work on improving bilateral relations in areas such as research and development, trade and democratic reforms. The EU’s approval of that request paves the way for the two sides to launch technical consultations on how best to put the agreement into practice. Abul Gheit said that he hoped for the first meeting to begin “soon.” The EU has already agreed to upgrade its relationship with Israel, but that process has come under fire following Israel’s Gaza offensive and the new government’s expansive settlement policy.

EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero- Waldner said that it was too early for the EU to strengthen ties with Israel. “On the one hand, the upgrading was an offer that in principle still stands. But for it to be taken up and pursued, we need to be sure that we are working with the same terms of reference; and for Europeans, the context of EU-Israel relations remains the same: work for a prosperous, secure and peaceful Middle East,” she said.

That should include “an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living peacefully beside Israel with East Jerusalem as its capital,” she said. Abul Gheit also criticised the new Israeli government’s stance, saying, “I do not believe the Israeli government has taken any positive moves up to this moment - nothing whatsoever.” But Ferrero- Waldner’s stance clashes with that of the Czech government, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The Czech Republic’s outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, told the Ha’aretz newspaper in Israel that he was “strongly critical” of earlier comments by the commissioner, which he termed “really hasty.” The decision whether to strengthen ties between the EU and Israel is “a political decision to be taken by the council (of EU member states). I’m still president of the council, and I should know something about it,” he said. Ferrero-Waldner hit back at that attack, saying that Topolanek “does not know the council’s conclusions.

He should read the council conclusions.” But Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country is set to take up the EU’s presidency on July 1, played down the significance of the open split between the EU’s executive and political leadership, stressing that any move towards Israel would depend on events. “The upgrade is an option, but we are not at the moment at the time where we need to take the decision on what to do with it. We have to wait and see where the Israeli government comes out on some of the key issues,” he said.

It was an embarrassing split over the question of whether or not to upgrade the bloc’s relationship with Israel, as officials from the bloc’s political leadership and executive traded accusations. The row pitted the EU’s Foreign Affairs Commissioner, Ferrero-Waldner, against the current head of the council of EU member states, Topolanek. She said, Topolanek “does not know the council’s conclusions. He should read the council conclusions.” A year ago, Israel asked the EU to upgrade their relationship by boosting ties in areas such as trade and research. EU member states approved the request in June. But Israel’s Gaza offensive, its continued construction of settlements in formerly Palestinian areas and the equivocal comments by its new government on the two-state solution have led to calls for caution in many European capitals.

Ferrero-Waldner said that “we do not believe that the time is right to go beyond the current level of relations: too much remains unclear at this current point in time.” She pointed out that EU member states concluded in December that the upgrade can only be conceived “in the context of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The decision whether to strengthen ties between the EU and Israel is “a political decision to be taken by the council (of EU member states). I’m still president of the council, and I should know something about it,” Topolanek said. Israel’s new government has not made a single positive move towards making peace with the Palestinians since it took power, Egypt’s foreign minister said. “I do not believe the Israeli government has taken any positive moves up to this moment - nothing whatsoever,” Gheit told journalists in Luxembourg after a meeting with EU counterparts.

He was speaking after the EU agreed to work on strengthening its ties with his country. The EU has already agreed to upgrade its relationship with Israel, but that process has come under fire following Israel’s Gaza offensive and the new government’s expansive settlement policy. Ferrero-Waldner said on Monday that it was too early for the EU to strengthen ties with Israel. “On the one hand, the upgrading was an offer that in principle still stands. But for it to be taken up and pursued, we need to be sure that we are working with the same terms of reference; and for Europeans, the context of EU-Israel relations remains the same: work for a prosperous, secure and peaceful Middle East,” she said. That should include “an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living peacefully beside Israel with East Jerusalem as its capital,” she said.