Israel and EU reach deal on Horizon 2020

Israel and the EU have reached a compromise enabling Israel to join the EU’s prestigious Horizon 2020 research and development programme, which begins on January 1st.

EU guidelines adopted earlier this year banning investment in Israeli-occupied territories had put Israeli participation in jeopardy.

The breakthrough came last night after intense contacts throughout the day between Israeli justice minister Tzipi Livni and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Under the terms of the compromise, an EU appendix to the Horizon agreement will state that the research grants will be in accordance with the guidelines, which prevent EU funding in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Israel will attach its own appendix declaring that it objects to the EU guidelines from both a legal and diplomatic perspective.

The sides will also set up a mechanism to ensure Israeli entities that have branches over the 1967 green line will not be able to forward EU funding to these branches.

Before the deal was agreed, leading academic Manuel Trajtenberg had warned that failure to join the project would be a blow to the future of Israel’s scientific community.