The Consistency Level of the Promotion of Rule of Law in the EU Policy Towards Israel
The EU is among the first global actors that linked their relations with third countries with the values of democracy, human rights and rule of law, establishing the so called “political conditionality”. The political conditionality is highly advocated in the bilateral agreements, aiming at institutionalizing the EU relations with the European Neighborhood Policy countries. In its efforts of promoting these fundamental values to the neighborhood, the EU is bound by the prominent principle of consistency, meaning the absence of contradictions between its policies. Through the assessment of different policy areas, including scientific cooperation, trade and development cooperation, this paper aims at evaluating the level of consistency in the EU promotion of rule of law towards Israel. More specifically, the focus is on the issue of entities and products originating from occupied territories and whether they can be eligible for EU benefits. Other issues to be discussed are the dormant EU conditionality during the Gaza Strip armed conflict, as well as the fact that the economic dialogue with Israel is always ongoing, even in the absence of political dialogue. This analysis will allow identifying the level of consistency (high, medium, low, inconsistency) in the EU policies related to the promotion of the main objective, namely the promotion of the rule of law.
Maria Fraskou . mfraskou@hotmail.com
Leiden University
Maria holds two Master degrees, one on EU Law (Leiden University) and one on EU International Relations and Diplomacy (College of Europe, Bruges). She is currently writing her PhD on the EU promotion of rule of law in case of illegal annexation of territory, focusing on Palestine and Crimea. Maria works as EU Program Coordinator at Heinrich Boll Foundation for Palestine and Jordan and before that she was a project manager at the EU Delegation for West Bank and Gaza Strip.