EU-Israel Forum
The EU-Israel Forum was formed after EU Foreign Ministers agreed on 11 October 1999, to support an initiative by EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos.[1]
It was enivisaged that the forum would have NGO status and would meet three times a year in Europe or Israel. According to European Report, "members will include economic decision-makers, business people, MPs, government Ministers, journalists, academics and other experts, who will come to together to consider EU/Israel bilateral relations, trade, finance, investment, scientific research and technology, energy, the environment, culture, the media, regional issues and the impact of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy on EU/Israel relations."[1]
On 24-25 November 2002, the Forum hosted a conference on Europe-Israel: A Troubled Relationship in conjunction with the Morris E. Curiel Center for International Studies and the Heinrich Boll Foundation. Speakers included Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, former Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, Ambassador of the European Union to Israel Giancarlo Chevellard, Ambassador Miguel Angelo Moratinos, Special Representative of the EU to the Middle East Peace Process, Joachim Bitterlich, former advisor to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and inter alia ambassador to NATO; Prof. Shlomo Avineri of the Hebrew University, a former director general of the Foreign Ministry; Prof. Eli Bar-Navi, former ambassador to France and Ambassador Dr. Hans-Otto Brauetigam , former minister of justice and member of the Foundation for the Compensation of Forced Laborers, Berlin.[2]
The foreign ministers of Israel and Germany Silvan Shalom and Joschka Fischer were keynote speakers at the opening session of a two-day conference on EU-Israel relations at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya on 16-17 February 2004, co-sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the EU-Israel Forum.[3]
In March 2004, the forum co-sponsored a conference on anti-Israeli bias in the European media with Tel Aviv University and the Herzog Institute. Speakers included Avirama Golan of Haaretz, Ofer Shelach of Yedioth Aharonot, David Witzthum of Channel One, Andres Ortega of Spain's El Pais, Paul Gillespie of the Irish Times, Thomas Schmid of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, and Ewan MacAskill of the Guardian. Reporting on the event in the Jerusalem Post, Bret Stephens claimed the panel skewed sharply left, and "A conference about media bias became instead an instance of it.".[4]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 EU/ISRAEL: PERMANENT FORUM TO HELP CLEAR UP MISUNDERSTANDINGS, European Report, 13 October 1999.
- ↑ Greer Fay Cashman, The Conference Cicuit, Jerusalem Post, 19 November 2002.
- ↑ Greer Fay Cashman, The Conference Circuit, Jerusalem Post, 12 February 2004.
- ↑ Bret Stephens, What media bias?, Jerusalem Post, 26 March 2004.
