The Mediterranean dialogue on agriculture and rural issues led by ENPARD South Initiative is enriched with the integration of Israel into the regional dynamics following the invitation sent on July 2015 by the European Commission to all the Southern neighborhood countries.

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Israel is highly advanced in the transformation process of its primary sector with a significant increase in productivity and agricultural output together with decrease in the share of agriculture in the GDP, exports and domestic employment. Israel is considered part of the developing countries, it has gradually modified its support policies for the agricultural sector in order to reduce its cost and improve its efficiency to enhance its market liberalization process. This evolution is not fully achieved; price support policies and customs duties on imports are still creating major market distortions.

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Based on this context, the Israeli government wanted to mobilize the ENPARD South Initiative to build on the European experience and expertise in agricultural and rural development policies and to be accompanied in its reflection on the reform of its agricultural support strategies. The underlying objectives are to reduce public spending on agriculture, to modify its measures that are creating distortions (quotas, trade barriers, price support policies...) and explore alternative measures (such as direct payments with environmental conditionalities for example), all in order to preserve the purchasing power of consumers and respect the rules set by the WTO.

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The first technical workshop will take place in Tel Aviv on May 2016 after reaching an agreement on the working methodology (identification of the priority issues, setting up a think tank, organization of mutli-stakeholders national workshops on specific features based on the forthcoming reforms), and on the values and principles of the inclusive dialogue promoted by the ENPARD South Initiative (which distinguishes it from purely expert work). This meeting will focus on global measures to reform public support for Israeli agriculture and the identification of key production chains which will be further analyzed in the coming months. The idea is to capitalize on the European experience from relevant examples for Israel. This will be facilitated by the participation of European experts on the Common Agricultural Policy which will present various significant case studies for Israel.

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The exchange of expertise and dialogue will continue on one or two specific areas during the third quarter of 2016 to set up the design of alternative support measures (for milk production in particular through the reform of the quota system or poultry sector that is currently facing productivity issues).