Added Value: Israel’s Strategic Worth to the European Union and its Member States is a groundbreaking joint report by The Henry Jackson Society and Friends of Israel Initiative examining the extent to which Israel represents a strategic asset to the EU. Analysing three key arenas – military, economic and scientific/technological – it finds that Europe is more secure, more innovative and more relevant on the world stage thanks to the tools Israel provides: from unmanned aerial vehicles to intelligence; from energy to pharmaceuticals; and from particle accelerators to high tech start-up.
At a time when Israel’s European detractors seek to cast it not only as an illegitimate state, but a liability and burden to Europe, Added Value demonstrates that by virtually all key parameters, Europe is better off with Israel than without it.
Among the report’s key findings:
- Contrary to news reports of EU-Israel disagreements – such as European Commission directives to label Israeli goods from the West Bank – by the most important measures, the EU’s relations with Israel are closer than at any time in the Union’s history.
- With nearly €30 billion in bilateral trade, the EU is Israel’s top source of imports, while Israel is Europe’s leading trade partner in the Eastern Mediterranean. And while the European economy continues to falter, EU exports to Israel are growing by roughly 5% a year.
- Israel provides invaluable counter-terrorism intelligence that keeps Europeans secure, while Israeli military technology protects EU troops in the field in Afghanistan, Mali and beyond.
- A world leader in high-tech innovation, Israel is vital in keeping Europe competitive in science and technological. That is why Israel is the only non-European country included in the Framework Programmes, the guiding blueprints for EU scientific research.
Launching the event at the UK Parliament, former Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar addressed his fellow EU citizens:
“We Europeans will be unable to emerge from our present crises secure, innovative and diplomatically significant without strong state-to-state relations at home and healthy alliances with strategic partners in our neighbourhood. We must start by acknowledging and enhancing our crucial strategic relationship with the State of Israel.”
To read the full report, click here