Vast Majority of MEPs Support ACAA      

 
The European Parliament by a vast majority said yes to deepening the bilateral relations between the European Union and Israel.

Ambassador David Walzer, Head of the Mission of Israel to the European Union welcomed the decision by the European Parliament today to approve the EU-Israel ACAA agreement.

The Agreement on the Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products is an agreement which will facilitate trade and remove trade barriers in industrial products to the benefit of citizens both in the European Union and in Israel.

The ACAA agreement (Agreements on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of industrial products) with Israel is a framework agreement that recognizes Israel industrial standards as equivalents to European standards.  An appendix regarding pharmaceutical products was added to the vote. The meaning of this is that the European Union will recognize the Israeli pharmaceutical standard, and Israeli pharmaceutical products can now be marketed without delay or further inspection (in parallel to similar marketing of European drugs in Israel). Additional appendixes covering other industrial spheres will be added to the framework agreement in the near future.

Due to irrelevant political objections, the agreement was stalled in the European Parliament for the past two years. After many efforts by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli embassies in the EU countries and particularly of the mission to the EU, the agreement was finally adopted: in this evening’s vote in Strasbourg, 379 voted for, 240 against and 40 abstained.