It’s time for the European Union to revive the EU-Israel Association Council that has been dormant for the last nine years, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told his Slovenian counterpart Anze Logar on Monday.
“Slovenia has become a trusted friend and a trusted ally,” Lapid told Logar during a joint press conference in Jerusalem marking the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cybersecurity.
Logar’s visit to Israel coincides with his country’s six-month presidency of the European Union that ends in December.
Lapid noted that during Slovenia’s presidency, he had been the first Israeli foreign minister since 2008 to address the EU meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels in July.
He took the opportunity of the press conference to call on Slovenia to end the nine-year freeze on the gathering of the EU-Israel Association Council that last convened in 2012.
“It was during your presidency of the EU that I spoke in Brussels with the foreign ministers of Europe, and I hope it will also be during your presidency that the EU-Israel Association Council [meeting] will finally take place,” Lapid said.
The council is the main high-level body designed to regulate Israeli-EU dialogue and agreements. This includes a promised upgrade to the already close ties between Israel and the EU, which have also been on hold since 2012. The proceedings were frozen to protest Israel settlement building.
Slovenia formalized diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, and is considered to be one of Israel’s strongest allies both within the European Union and in the United Nations.
Earlier this summer, Slovenia hosted a re-creation of a parachute jump made by Israeli heroine and poet Hannah Senesh, a Hungarian immigrant to Mandate Palestine. She returned to Europe during World War II to rescue Jews, landing in what is now Slovenia, but was captured and executed by the Nazis.
Logar said the jump had been very meaningful.
Slovenia “highly values” its “strong ties” with Israel, he said, noting that it was its strongest economic ally in the region, as he invited Lapid to visit Slovenia.
Logar promised to help enable and improve Israeli-EU relations.
“You can count on us,” he said.