The European Union foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2009-2021): Lessons and Reflections

Abstract

The dissertation is about the role of the European Union (EU) in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after the Lisbon Treaty (2009–2021). Since the establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and its evolution it was expected that the EU Foreign policy will be optimised, while the Palestinian state-building project will achieve better results. External criticism directed at the European Union’s inefficient policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is prevalent both within the academic and political circles. Usually, constructive criticism is a prerequisite for a positive development or at least it leads to attempts to shift policy in a more suitable, optimised, and self-serving direction. However, external, and internal feedback requires tools and capabilities to transform into knowledge which therefore has the potential to trigger change. Examination of the official EU documentation - declarations, evaluations, reports, and analyses can partly reveal the level of self-reflection and self-evaluation capability of the Union. The participation of EEAS officials and their insights could reveal further the EU learning process. The research project aims to find whether the EU perceive its policy as inefficient, and if that is the case, whether it can change its policy, positions, and rhetoric in terms of declaratory policy, and more importantly, whether the EU is being able to reflect and learn from critical feedback and challenging experience. However, the EU support for the peace process, the two-state solution, and the state-building project are still on the European agenda and rhetoric, while there are no tangible results or alternative actions which may lead to a substantial progress in these pre-set concrete directions. The EU continuing support for that non- progressive policy indicates there is either no sense of failure or there are no lessons drawn from the failure. On the contrary, if the EU is not bothered or at least at ease with the status quo there must be a rational explanation and reason for that.