The europeanisation of national foreign policy : Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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MSc Thesis in Political Science

The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy:

Dutch Foreign Policy Preferences towards

the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Charlotte de Jong, 10737006 C.L.dejong@outlook.com Student Political Science and International Relations Faculty of Social and Behavioural Science University of Amsterdam, 23 June 2017 Supervisor: dhr. dr. (Dimitris) Bouris Second Reader: mw. dr. E.A.V. (Vivienne) Matthies-Boon Word count: 25,018

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The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy:

Dutch Foreign Policy Preferences towards

the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Charlotte de Jong

Abstract

Dutch foreign policy is constructed on principles driven by the desire to pursue economic integration in Europe. Especially since the 1990s, world trade increased rapidly as direct result of the European Union removing market barriers and creating a single political-legal structure to govern trade. Since then, Europeanisation studies play a central role to examine the impact of EU policies on EU Member States and vice-versa. The main objective of this thesis is to look closely at the interaction between foreign policy preferences of the Netherlands as a EU member state and the EU trade policies towards the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. By drawing on the literature of Europeanisation, this study looks specifically at differentiation measures taken by the EU and the Dutch Government to exclude settlement-linked activities from bilateral relations with Israel. Since these Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, products from the settlements are not eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the EU-Israel Association Agreement. This led to the fact that territorial differentiation in trade policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict gained greater visibility for both the EU and the Dutch Government. This thesis provides a more detailed analysis to what extent Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the conflict are ‘Europeanised’. In doing so, it makes a distinction between the downloading (top-down) and uploading (bottom-up) dimension of Europeanisation. Based on the empirical analysis undertaken, the study shows that EU policies do have an impact on Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the downloading hypothesis received more support from evidence than the uploading dimension. Further, the extent of Europeanisation of Dutch foreign policy preferences varies across the analysed policies. Although the outcomes of this study are consistent with literature on Europeanisation, it represents a more in-depth understanding of the impact of the EU on Dutch foreign policy preferences.

Keywords: Europeanisation, downloading dimension, uploading dimension, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dutch foreign policy, trade

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List of Abbreviations

AIV Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs

AOW Dutch Old Age Pension

CBL Dutch Central Bureau of Foodstuffs EEAS European External Action Service

EEC European Economic Community

ECJ European Court of Justice EMP Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

EP European Parliament

EPC European Political Cooperation

EU European Union

CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy GA General Assembly of the United Nations MEPP Middle East Peace Process

MS Member States

OPT Occupied Palestinian Territories

PA Palestinian Authority

PLO Palestine Liberation Organisation

ROO Rules of Origin

SVB Dutch Social Insurance Bank

UN United Nations

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Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Impact on Dutch Foreign Policy

The goal of a free and open international trading system has been a long-standing Dutch foreign policy orientation, which stretches back as far as the 17th

century. Traditionally the Netherlands developed foreign policy priorities in line with the Atlantic Alliance. With the end of World War II however, Dutch policy makers decided to construct their foreign policy on principles driven by the desire to pursue economic integration in Europe. The European Economic Community (EEC), the precursor of the European Union (EU), of which the Netherlands is one of the founding members, initiated its first explicit venture in foreign policy cooperation in 1970. An extensive diplomatic network across many continents became the primary means by which the Dutch Government pursued its goals. With the expansion of the EU, European integration of EU member states demanded national responses and some relationships had to be recast to meet the needs of this new environment. Academics began to study European integration, focusing on the increase of European political cooperation and regulation and the resulting unity of the European social order. In the 1990s, world trade increased rapidly as a direct result of the EU lifting market barriers and creating a single political-legal structure to govern trade. Europeanisation studies, in which European integration theories plays a central role, reached an unprecedented level of intensity among scholars of international relations. Unlike the European-level integration theories, the focus shifted more towards domestic-level theories in which attention is paid to diffusion and implementation of EU policies and institutional practices at the national and subnational level.

Literature on Dutch foreign policy tends to emphasise its gradual “Europeanisation”. However, this literature is rather descriptive and academic contributions to this subject are limited. Hence, the main objective of this thesis is to look closely at the interaction of Dutch national foreign policy preferences with the EU’s collective policies towards the Israeli– Palestinian conflict and to provide a more detailed analysis of the extent to which it is ‘Europeanised’, by looking specifically at differentiation measures taken to exclude settlement-linked activities from bilateral relations with Israel. In this thesis, practices of territorial differentiation are actions or policies implemented by the EU or the Dutch Government which aim to establish a distinction between actors, activities and products located in (or originating from) the internationally recognised territory of Israel, on the one hand, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) which are controlled by the Israel but

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claimed by Palestine, on the other hand. After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel started building settlements on the OPT and Arab Palestinian residential areas became Jewish zones of residence. As it is further outlined in chapter four, the Israeli Settlements in the occupied territories are illegal according to international law; de jure the territories do not belong to the State of Israel. According to the EU, this means that products from the settlements are not eligible for preferential tariff treatment under the EU-Israel Association Agreement. This led to the fact that territorial differentiation in trade policies gained greater visibility for both the EU and the Dutch Government. This thesis can be put in context by drawing on the literature of Europeanisation since it examines to what extent differentiation in EU policies has an impact on Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The downloading and uploading approaches of Europeanisation will be leading throughout the study. Where the former seeks to explain the conditions and causal mechanism through which the EU triggers domestic change in its member states and in third countries, the latter helps to analyse how states actively upload their domestic preferences to the EU level. Against this setting, analytical tools for examining the extent of Europeanisation in Dutch foreign policy preferences are included in this thesis. The analytical framework is then applied to trade related policies to indicate territorial differentiation measures on the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the context of the conflict.

The leading research question throughout this thesis is: “To what extent are trade related Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Europeanised?”. In order to answer this question, the following subsidiary questions will be asked and answered.

• How is the theory of Europeanisation applicable to EU and national foreign policies? • How is Dutch foreign policy shaped towards the establishment of the EU?

• To what extent is EU policy reflected in Dutch foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

• To what extent has the Dutch Government attempted to export its foreign policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the EU level of analysis?

The text that follows is structured in five chapters. Chapter one presents a theoretical framework in which Europeanisation and its different dimensions are described. It provides a working definition of Europeanisation while discussing academic literature on theoretical and conceptual approaches. Chapter two delineates the methods used in this rather qualitative

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study. It discusses the relevance of the thesis and provides a framework of analysis. Besides that, it presents contributions from the literature on Dutch foreign policy to put the topic in context. Chapter three offers a background on the significance of both the Netherlands and EU’s relations with Israel and Palestine. In doing so, it focusses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Chapter four applies the theoretical framework to specific foreign policies of the Netherlands in the period from the 1990s through the end of 2016. Chapter five provides an overview of the main findings of the empirical analysis. It discusses the implications by drawing attention to the usefulness of the Europeanisation approaches. This chapter additionally provides input for future research.

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1. Theoretical Framework

As briefly mentioned above, the theoretical framework I used to analyse the downloading and uploading dimensions of Europeanisation is rooted in European integration theory, which played a central role in shaping Europeanisation studies (Graziano & Vink, 2007, pp. 12-15). The first section of this chapter shows the link between Europeanisation and European Integration. The second section provides a wider overview of the theoretical debate on Europeanisation. The third section presents the downloading dimension of Europeanisation before the attention is will be drawn to the uploading dimension in the fourth section. In the fifth and last section of this chapter I discuss some of the many definitions of Europeanisation in order to come to a suitable working definition for the empirical chapter in this thesis. 1.1. European Integration

The EU has progressively evolved into what aspires to be an ‘ever-closer union’ among the peoples of Europe (The Treaty on European Union, Article 1, 2012, p. 16). This ever-closer union is seen in the increased integration of the EU in the Member States over time (Eur-Lex, 2016). European integration, also known as the notion of ‘deepening’ of the EU, concerns the increase of European political cooperation and regulation and the resulting unity of the European social order. It leads to adjustments in legislation and public administration by governments in the EU Member States (MS). Throughout the years, scholars have tried to explain the EU’s impact on MS with the study of European integration, which is reflected in work of theorists on neo-functionalism (Haas, 1958), liberal intergovenmentalism (Moravcsik, 1993), supranational governance (Sweet & Stone and Sandholz, 1997) and to some extent in the multi-level governance approach (Hooghe & Marks, 2001). These integration theories are oriented at the European-level.

Before the establishment of the European Union in the 1990s, many students in comparative social and political science worked only with the concept of European Integration. Their work concerned questions of democratic reform and legitimacy, better understanding of the EU’s formal institutions and concerns and assumptions about the nature of the EU and the finality of the integration process (Diez & Wiener, 2003, pp. 3-4). They focussed on the creation of a European political arena and on the addition of new governance structures more generally (Graziano & Vink, 2007, pp. 3-4). Besides increased integration, the EU has managed to ‘widen’ in terms of membership, enlarging from 15 countries in 2004 to 28 in 2013 (Eur-Lex, 2016). With the deepening and widening of the EU, students have

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become increasingly interested in how European integration has transformed the domestic institutions, policies and political processes in the MS and how it influenced the strategies and preferences of MS representatives (Börzel & Risse, 2000, p. 394). Unlike the European-level integration theories, the focus shifted more towards domestic-European-level theories in which attention is paid to diffusion and implementation of EU policies and institutional practices at the national and subnational level (Graziano & Vink, 2007, p. 4). These are known as Europeanisation theories. Nonetheless, European integration and Europeanisation remain closely interlinked, as Europeanisation can be seen as a consequence of European integration. 1.2. The Birth and Evolution of Europeanisation

Europeanisation studies begin primarily from the idea that potential benefits of EU rules remain unrealised as long as they are not implemented according to their intentions (Sverdrup, 2007, p. 199). Indeed, the future of EU decision is largely dependent upon this integration. The classic stand of Europeanisation is driven by the growing importance of the EU for MS. It got associated with new forms of European governance and the adaption of nation-state legal and administrative procedures to the pressures associated with EU membership (von Hirschhausen & Patel, 2010, p. 1). The predominant connotation of the term stems from the process of Europe’s contemporary political integration since the early 1990s (Graziano & Vink, 2007, p. 3) (Smith M. , 2004a, p. 96) (Smith M. , 2004b, p. 18). At that time, the use of Europeanisation as a term reached an unprecedented level of intensity among scholars of international relations, because world trade increased rapidly as direct result of the EU removing market barriers and creating a single political-legal structure to govern trade (Fligstein & Merand, 2001, p. 13).

The EU used a range of legal instruments to implement trade policies. In Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, a distinction is made between legal acts: regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions (Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Article 288, 2012, pp. 171-172). While regulations are directly applicable at the national level, directives are not – MS are free to decide how to transfer them into national laws. Decisions are only binding upon those to whom it is addressed and recommendations and opinions have no binding force (Ibid.). The EU made sure that new EU MS would transpose the existing acquis communautaire, which exists of the first three legal acts, declarations, resolutions, international agreements and judgements of the Court of Justice (Miller, 2011, pp. 1-2). Sedelmeier (2008) examined if new MS apply and enforce the acquis

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communautaire and concluded that all of the eight studied post-communist countries included in the 2004 enlargement outperformed virtually all of the old members during the first four years of membership (Sedelmeier, 2008, p. 822). However, the quantitative data Sedelmeier (2008) used as an indicator of actual compliance is limited, since it only covers only EU directives (Idem, 816). When studying Europeanisation, directives and other policy measures described are interesting to find out what their impact is on national policy preferences.

In its most explicit form Europeanisation is conceptualised as the process of ‘downloading’ directives, regulations and institutional structures to the domestic level (Howell, 2009, p. 2). Manners and Whitman (2000) apply Europeanisation to denote domestic adaption as a result of EU membership. Although they not explicitly use the term in their work, they take into consideration the way in which EU MS adapt their foreign policy through membership of the EU, as well as towards the EU itself, and argue that MS conduct all but the most limited foreign policy objectives in an EU context (Manners and Whitman, 2000, p. 243). Manners and Whitman (2000), and many other scholars, argue that participation in EU institutions and processes is often linked to a domestic policy convergence in substance and in process between MS (Featherstone, 2003, p. 11). This shows the causality between structure and agency. The process of downloading as examined by above academics has later been extended in the literature in terms of ‘uploading’ to the EU. This dimension of Europeanisation helps to analyse how states upload their domestic preferences to the EU level (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 116). These preferences may involve EU policies, may relate to European processes or they can touch on issues of institutional design (Idem, pp 116-117).

Along with the deepening and widening of the EU internal market, economic and public policy rules are shaped to facilitate global governance and trade with EU partners. Besides the arrangements for (new) EU MS, the EU has designed institutional arrangements for those countries that are either not willing to become members, or not eligible for membership, such as the 1995 Barcelona Declaration1 and the European Neighbourhood Policy2 (Lavenex & Schimmelfenning, 2009, p. 795) (Schimmelfenning, 2010, p. 322). This

1_{The Barcelona Declaration created a framework for regional political, economic, social and cultural relations} with the Mediterranean neighbour countries

2_{The European Neighbourhood Policy, launched in 2003, to provide more support to the Eastern European,} Middle Eastern and Northern African neighbour countries building deep and sustainable democracy and to support inclusive economic development (European Commission, 2013, p.2).

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made it interesting for academics to analyse the impact of the EU in its near abroad and to examine changes as result of Europeanisation in the domestic structures of the neighbours of the EU when examining foreign policy (Subotic, 2011, pp. 315-326) (Korosteleva, Natorski, & Simao, 2013) (Gawrich, Melnykovska, & Schweickert, 2010) (Sasse, 2011, pp. 560-579). The term Europeanisation began to reflect the evolution of foreign policy coordination itself (Featherstone, 2003, p. 10). Along with the growing importance of the European Political Cooperation (EPC), which in 1992 became the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), intergovernmental consultation mechanisms where MS could achieve politics of scale were created (Ginsberg, 1989). Europeanisation became more frequently used as a process of domestic adaption in the area of foreign policy. Indeed, the concise selection of different dimensions (uploading and downloading) along which Europeanisation has been applied, highlights its ambivalence and complexity. This means that the question of how to define Europeanisation is not easy to answer.

1.3. Defining and Conceptualising Europeanisation

The term Europeanisation is applied in a number of ways to describe a variety of phenomena and processes of change and is clearly fragmentary (Olsen, 2002, p. 921) (Mair, 2004, p. 338). Often-cited academics that studied Europeanisation state differing definitions, which makes the choice for one single definition in this thesis complex. In this section I discuss some of these definitions in order find to a suitable working definition for the empirical chapter of this thesis.

Ladrech (1994) and Radealli (2000), who are well-known for their attempts to conceptualise the Europeanisation, refer to change at the domestic level (Europeanisation) as ‘an incremental process’ and as ‘a set of processes’. This suggest that Europeanisation takes place in steps. I argue however that changes occur more rapidly, especially when patterns of behaviour are altered. This means I rather choose for a definition where Europeanisation is one process, in which attempts are being made to export policies. As written in the former chapter, it is very useful to understand that behavioural factors may influence Europeanisation. However, the timeframe in which this thesis had to come into being did not allow me to critically analyse the interests of actors involved. Kevin Featherstone’s definition of Europeanisation as ‘a process of structural change, variously affecting actors and institutions, ideas and interests’ (Featherstone, 2003, p. 1) is therefore also not appropriate. Instead of focusing on behaviour and ideas of individuals, I examined preferences of the

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Dutch Government in general. A definition that excludes norms, preferences and interests of (particular) government officials would suit better.

A definition that does suit comes from Cowles, Caporaso & Risse (2001b), who define Europeanisation as ‘the emergence and development at the European level of distinct structures of governance, that is, of political, legal, and social institutions associated with the problem solving that formalize interactions among the actors, and of policy networks specializing in the creation of authoritative European rules’ (Cowles, Caporaso, & Risse, 2001b, p. 3). These academics portray Europeanisation as the institutionalisation at the ‘European level’. Since Europeanisation refer to Europa as a continent or to the EU as an entity (Radaelli, 2003, p. 27), this definition suggests that there might be other institutions involved than those of the EU. In this thesis however, I focus on EU policy. The EU should therefore be mentioned in the definition. Since both the Dutch foreign policy preferences and EU policy are analysed, this thesis needs a working definition that addresses both the downloading and uploading dimension of Europeanisation. Radaelli (2000) and Ladrech (1994) focus only on the former. The same applies to Heritier’s (2001) definition ‘the process of influence deriving from European decisions and impacting member states’ policies and political and administrative structures. It comprises the following elements: the European decisions, the processes triggered by these decisions as well as the impacts of these processes on national policies, decision processes and institutional structures’ (Héritier , 2001, p. 3). The latter definition lacks the ‘policy preferences’ that I wanted to address. What is however useful is that this definition does not refer to the nature of the object, for example why and how member states produce Europeanisation - the timeframe of this thesis did not allow me to analyse this.

With Europeanisation, I start from a set of post-ontological puzzles, meaning I start from the notion that there is a process of European integration and Europeanisation under way and that the EU developed its own institutions and policies over the last sixty years (Radaelli, 2004, p. 2). Europeanisation helps me to explain patterns of causation between the domestic level and the EU level. In its broadest sense, it examines the administrative response on the part of Dutch government to the demands of EU membership and considers the preferences it put in place to manage its participation in EU decision-making. This means the definition needs to include proactive attempts at exporting national policy preferences to the EU level (Börzel T. , 2002, p. 197), which are part of the uploading approach. When

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defining Europeanisation, I follow scholars who argue that Europeanisation of foreign policy is best understood as an interactive process of change linking the national and EU levels (Juncos & Pomorska, 2005, p. 11) (Wong, 2006, p. 17) (Major, 2005, p. 177). Further, the working definition in this thesis needs to address the formal aspects of Europeanisation, which will be of special importance when studying the downloading dimension. With regard to actors, both the national government and the EU institutions need to be included. Altogether, this results in the following working definition of Europeanisation:

“The process in which national governments make formal attempts to export their policy preferences to the EU level, and in which EU institutions make formal attempts to export EU

policy to the domestic level, with the aim to change existing policy or to facilitate the diffusion and implementation of new EU policy”

This definition has several important aspects that may need extra explanation. First, national governments, such as the Netherlands, are EU member states, such as the Netherlands. When referring to the Dutch Government in this thesis, I refer to the government officials who used their decision-making power in the analysed policies. Second, it is important to mention ‘attempts’ of Europeanisation. As written before, attempts to change EU or domestic policies are also part of the Europeanisation process, meaning that full adjustment is not a requirement for Europeanisation. ‘Formal’ attempts are attempts written in official meetings, conclusions, proceedings, debates, activities, motions, missions, decisions and calendars, published by the EU or the state. Third, EU institutions are the European Council, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), the European Commission, the Council of the European Union or the European Parliament. When referring to the EU-level, I refer to the EU institutions. The following two sections provide a more detailed overview of the different dimensions of Europeanisation. 1.4. The Downloading Dimension of Europeanisation

The downloading dimension of Europeanisation seeks to explain the conditions and causal mechanism through which the EU triggers domestic change in its member states and in third countries (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 114). Hix and Goetz (2000) identified European integration as the independent variable, and change in domestic systems or the downloading dimension of Europeanisation as the dependent variable (Goetz & Hix, 2000, p. 23). Academics who use this dimension of Europeanisation, also known as the ‘top-down’

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perspective, have used the concept of Europeanisation in various ways.3 The first attempt to utilise this dimension for empirical research comes from Robert Ladrech (1994), who studied the concept in the case of France. He defined it as ‘an incremental process re-orienting the direction and shape of politics to the degree that EC political and economic dynamics become part of the organisational logic of national politics and policy-making’ (Ladrech, 1994, p. 69). What may be in contrast to conclusions that can be drawn to the outcomes of the studies of Manners and Whitmann (2000) and Sedelmeier (2008), who argue that every MS adapt to EU legal acts, is that Ladrech argued that domestic factors have a mediating influence on policy, which is why a possible fear of homogenisation over MS should be unfounded (Ladrech, 1994, p. 70). The organisational logic in Ladrech’s definition refers to the adaptive processes of organisations to a changed or changing environment (Ladrech, 1994, p. 71). This definition seems to address the downloading dimension of Europeanisation, since the change occurs in domestic systems. Other academics followed the downloading dimension of Europeanisation by showing that it has led to distinct and identifiable changes in the domestic institutional structures of MS (Cowles, Caporaso, & Risse, 2001a). These structures can be formal, such as national legal systems and national or regional administrations, and informal, such as business-government relations, public discourses, nation-state identities and collective understandings of citizenship norms (Cowles, Caporaso, & Risse, 2001b, p. 1).

Studies addressing the downloading dimension, focus on uni-directional changes: the supranational requiring change on the national level. Most of them start from the empirical puzzle that the European Union exerts ‘pressure’ on member states, whereafter several veto players in the political system and supporting formal institutions may intervene. Börzel and Risse (2009) consider factors that facilitate adaption and serve as catalyst for domestic change as the ‘intervening variables’ (Börzel & Risse, 2009, p. 7). The ‘pressure’ leads eventually to reactions and change at the domestic level (Radaelli, 2006, p. 60) (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 114). The adaptational pressure where the causal puzzle starts is created by ‘misfit’ (Radaelli, 2006, p. 63). This is the inconvenience or ‘incompatibility between European-level processes, policies and institutions, on the one hand, and domestic-level processes, policies and institutions, on the other’ (Börzel & Risse, 2009, p. 1). The intervening variables and a degree of ‘misfit’ are conditions for expecting domestic changes

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in response to Europeanisation (Börzel & Risse, 2009, pp. 1-2). These two conditions, the intervening variables and the degree of misfit, lead to reactions and change at the domestic level or to Europeanisation.

To solve the empirical puzzle of the downloading dimension, the literature has drawn on two different strands of neo-institutionalism: rationalist and constructivist approaches to top-down Europeanisation. Other than Ladrech’s (1994) notion that domestic factors mediate policy, these approaches both focus on EU institutions that mediate or filter domestic impact of Europe. However, the approaches differ in their assumptions about exactly how institutions matter (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 114). The first approach draws on rational choice institutionalism and argues that the EU facilitates domestic adaption by changing opportunity structures for domestic actors (Ibid.). This approach identifies the ‘misfit’ that leads to the downloading of EU policies and institutions by the MS. This ‘misfit’ is shaped by cost-benefit calculations of the strategic actors whose interests are at stake (Ibid). The latter approach draws on sociological institutionalism. It focusses on the change caused as a result of ‘shared beliefs and norms that are first defined and consolidated in the EU policy processes and then incorporated into the logic of domestic (national and subnational) discourse, political structures and public policies’ (Radaelli, 2006, p. 59). This approach can be found in Radaelli’s (2000) definition of Europeanisation. He argues, when drawing on Ladrech’s definition, that the concept of Europeanisation refers to ‘a set of processes through which the EU political, social and economic dynamics become part of the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures and public policies’ (Radaelli, 2000). The focus lies on change in the logic of behaviour in this definition and may be applied to both organisations and individuals. The constructivist approach specifies mechanisms based on the ideational and normative processes involved in top-down Europeanisation (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 114). It draws on the ‘logic of appropriateness’ (March & Olsen, 1989, p. 161) that influences the way in which actors define their goals and what they perceive as rational action (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 115). Here a normative or cognitive misfit is the starting position of the analysis.

The more recent literature on the downloading dimension of Europeanisation has focussed on identifying the causal mechanisms to explain the domestic change they observe (Börzel & Risse, 2009, p. 4). Knill & Lehmkuhl (2002) explain the domestic impact of Europeanisation by making an analytical distinction between three mechanisms of Europeanisation that all require a distinctive analytical approach in order to explain its

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domestic impact: Institutional compliance, changing domestic opportunity structures, and framing domestic beliefs and expectations (Knill & Lehmkuhl, 2002, p. 256). The first mechanism refers to specific measures that demand member states to comply with institutional requirements of the EU (Idem, p. 257). The second refers to redistribution of power by changing domestic opportunity structures (Ibid.). And the third mechanism might not directly impact domestic regulatory styles and structures since it European policies primarily aim to change domestic beliefs and expectations (Ibid.). However, as written before, domestic adjustment is however not a requirement for Europeanisation; attempts to change can also be a degree of Europeanisation. Many European policies might be characterised by a mixture of these different mechanisms, which is why there is no single approach for explaining the variable domestic impact of European policies (Idem, p. 159). Indeed, the first two mechanisms are more rationalist approaches, while the third mechanism belongs to the constructivist strand of the downloading dimension of Europeanisation.

Other scholars argue that the realisation of European policy in national states depend on the reform capacity of a country in terms of integrated political leadership based on formal competences or factual consensus capacity (Héritier , 2001, pp. 9-10). Another interesting insight comes from Börzel (2002), who argues that even if actors may pursue different interests and strategies, they are exposed to the same institutions. Both structure and agency are needed in order to understand and explain the domestic impact of Europe (Börzel T. , 2002, p. 25). Börzel and Risse (2002) make a distinction between differential empowerment and socialisation as two theoretical logics of domestic adaption to Europe (Börzel & Risse, 2000, p. 3). In this thesis, I will take into account these mechanisms while analysing Dutch foreign policy preferences.

1.5. The Uploading Dimension of Europeanisation

MS do not simply passively download policies from the EU. The uploading dimension of Europeanisation, also known as the bottom-up approach, helps to analyse how states actively upload their domestic preferences to the EU level (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 116). As written before, these preferences may involve EU policies, relate to European processes or they can touch on issues of institutional design (Idem, pp 116-117). Since the domestic level initiates change in the EU and affects European integration, Europeanisation is the independent variable in this dimension, and European integration the dependent variable. In contrast to the downloading dimension, the puzzle of the uploading dimension starts at the MS level, from a

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system of interaction at the domestic level, in which actors, problems, resources, style, and discourses may play a role (Radaelli, 2004, p. 4); attempts may result in changes at the European level. The chain of this dimension starts at the domestic level, whereafter the EU may reformulate policy. Indeed, after that, change at the domestic level can be studied, which confirms that the uploading and downloading dimension are interlinked.

In order to conceptualise how states upload their preferences to the EU level, students have drawn on constructivist and rationalist approaches. Rationalist approaches assume that actors have fixed and predefined interests, and pursue them through recourse to their power resources (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 117). Examples of power resources are economic strength or the number of votes in the European Council. Rationalist approaches strategically calculate the costs and benefits of different options. Intergovernmentalism is a variant of rationalist institutionalism and is one of the most prominent approaches that represent instrumental rationality (Smith M. , 2004, p. 100). In this approach, the process of integration is under the control of national governments, which have charge of the substance of additional steps of integration (Schimmelfenning & Rittberger, 2006, p. 78). Powerful states are more likely to influence successfully the content of EU law if the policy at stake is very important for them and if they manage to form winning coalitions through concessions or through threats (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 117). Moravcsik’s (1993) liberal intergovernmentalism is also a rationalist approach. This theory shows that foreign policy preferences of national governments are formed by the interests of specific groups (Schimmelfenning & Rittberger, 2006, p. 81).

Constructivist approaches assume that actors can be influenced due to learning and socialisation processes, interactions and identities. This can change their interests (Checkel, 2011, p. 548). The preferences of state and non-state actors are not completely fixed during interactions (Risse, 2000, p. 7). According to this approach policy outcomes and integration dynamics are shaped by processes of arguing among member states, typically involving supranational institutions, such as the European Commission or policy experts and epistemic communities (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 118). Many authors show the role that supranational institutions such as the European Commission or policy experts and epistemic communities play in the constructivist approach to the shaping of policy outcomes (Haas, 1970) (Sandholtz & Zysman, 1989) (Albert & Stetter, 2015). According to the constructivist perspective to the bottom-up approach of Europeanisation, states are should be more successful in shaping

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policies if this means that their arguments resonate with the beliefs and norms of other actors (Börzel & Panke, 2016, p. 118). To analyse the bottom-up dimension of Europeanisation of foreign policies, students need to examine to what degree and how MS rely on the European foreign policy framework to pursue national objectives, how they initiate joint European policies and how they contribute to joint actions. And if, how, and to what extent MS and the actors evolved agree with each other on EU foreign policies.

Conclusion

This chapter showed that the relationship between European integration and Europeanisation is interactive and that the distinction between the independent and dependent variables in both the uploading and downloading dimension is obscured. Although the dimensions can be analysed separately, they are interactive. Overall, it can be concluded that Europeanisation is not a theory but rather a conceptual framework that draws on a variety of theoretical models, mostly derived from European integration studies. Most literature on the dimensions of Europeanisation has drawn on two different strands: rationalist and constructivist perspectives. Each school explains important elements of Europeanisation. Rationalist approaches draw the attention to the self-interest of actors. They make strategic decisions and cost-benefit calculations. Constructivist approaches explain social learning and normative diffusion and remind us about the fact that the study of Europeanisation is not only about agents with fixed preferences who interact via strategic exchange.

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2. The Analytical Framework

This chapter presents how to apply the theoretical framework of Europeanisation to the empirical chapter of thesis. The dimensions of Europeanisation will be used to show the interaction between the EU and the Dutch level, meaning that the main focus of the analysis is on possible EU impact on the national policy (downloading) and on a possible impact of formal Dutch government attempts to change on EU policy (uploading). The thesis takes both EU trade policy and Dutch foreign policy preferences as unit of analysis. In doing so, the study starts from the assumption that national foreign policy preferences can be analysed separately from EU foreign trade policy. By focussing on the state-level I explain the variation in national trade policies. More specifically, I focus on formal announcements and decisions coming from the Dutch Government as domestic political institution. Institutions at the EU-level are seen as arenas for rule making and bargaining, and venues in which states’ preferences may be transformed (institutionalism). Of course, I take notice of the probability that shared ideas from individual government officials are taken into consideration before eventual announcements are made and decisions are formed. However, for analytical purposes I will not focus on the interests, norms and opinions of individual units in the collective actors that I analyse. This chapter proceeds in three sections. In the first section, contributions from the literature on Dutch foreign policy are evaluated to put the topic in context. Especially the work of Tonra (2001) is of importance. It aims to answer the subsidiary question how Dutch foreign policy is shaped towards the establishment of the EU. The second section uses the theory of Europeanisation as outlined in the former chapter while presenting the analytical framework. In doing so, it shows how Europeanisation is operationalised and what hypothesis can be derived from it. The last section of this chapter delineates the methods used in order to answer the rather qualitative research questions. It discusses the relevance of the thesis and provides a summary of the sources.

2.1. Empirical Fundament: The Shaping of Dutch foreign policy

Now the thesis is contextualised in theoretical terms in the former chapter, this section provides a general background of how Dutch foreign policy is shaped between 1945 and 1970. This helps to establish an empirical basis for the analysis. Dutch foreign policy is orientated towards a free and open international trading system, which stretches back as far as the 17th

century (Tonra, 2001, p. 58). After World War II, Dutch policy makers decided to construct their foreign policy on principles driven by the desire to pursue economic

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integration in Europe (Ibid.) (Boekestijn, 1990). Together with the Netherland’s dedication to the Atlantic Alliance, led by the United States (US), this was the acknowledged foundation of the country’s foreign policy between 1945 and 1970 (Tonra, 2001, p. 75) – up to the time that the EEC initiated its first explicit venture in foreign policy cooperation. An extensive diplomatic network across many continents was the primary means by which the Dutch Government pursued its goals (Idem, p. 58). However, phenomena as the Cold War and European integration demanded a Dutch response and some relationships did have to be recast to meet the needs of this new environment (Idem, p. 5).

Tonra (2001) addresses important changes that contributed to the way Dutch politicians shaped foreign policy. First, geography had placed the Netherlands close to the core of European Conflict and the post-war Dutch economy depended upon the reconstruction of German trade. In contrast to many countries, the Dutch Government came to pursue a policy of supporting German inclusion in European Security, economic and political institutions (Idem, p.60). The Dutch Government calculated that economic trade-offs could only be achieved multilaterally and that traditional models of cooperation, such as bilateral trade agreements, were not enough; a freer market in Europe demanded new forms of decision-making (Idem, p. 61). These preferences became addressed in the European Coal and Steel Community, established in 1950, which resulted in 1957 in the EEC.4_The Netherlands and France agreed that British entry to the EEC would strengthen transatlantic links. For the Netherlands, this was crucial to post-war Dutch foreign policy, because the United Kingdom played an important role in fortifying the Atlantic Alliance and the free trade constituency in the EEC (Ibid.). Under the EEC, states were committed to establish common policies in areas such as international trade and economic relations with third countries (Tonra, 2001, p. 141)5. Although in the early years of integration the Dutch Government attempted to maintain a distinction between economic and political integration (van der Bos, 1992 , p. 18), the 1970 Luxembourg report marked the start of a process in which EEC member states sought to consult one another on foreign policy issues (Idem, p. 1). Deepening in institutional capacity came with the linkage between the EEC and the EPC, that was introduced in 1970 to coordinate European foreign policy (European Communities Commission, 1973, p. 143).

4_{The EEC was incorporated and renamed as the European Community (EC) in 1993, upon the formation of the} European Union.

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A second change that contributed to the shape of Dutch Foreign Policy was the transatlantic relationship between the Netherlands and the US after the Cold War (idem, p. 64). The Dutch depended upon the US for both its economic reconstruction and its military security in the post-war era (Ibid.), at that time also in the Dutch East Indies. Foreign policy objectives were subject to the establishment, maintenance and development of the Dutch security policy based on an American security guarantee (Idem, p. 65). However, as the strained relations between the Soviet Union and the US eased, Dutch foreign policy broadened its scope and began to view issues through an increasingly multilateral and United Nations (UN) centred perspective (Ibid.). The UN became a forum for the pursuit of Dutch interests on issues such as the development of international law, arms control and development cooperation (Idem, p. 66).

The third change in Dutch foreign policy between 1945 and 1970 had to do with its domestic environment of which I will briefly address the most important aspects for this thesis. First, the short seaways to northern and southern Europe contributed to the development of the country as a major European transportation centre (Idem, p.66). Second, this resulted eventually in a capital exporting industrial and service-based high wage economy (Voorhoeve, 1979, pp. 13-15). International trade liberalisation and economic integration was a prime Dutch policy goal. Third, the downfall of the ‘pillarisation’ (verzuiling in Dutch) as the system of social organisation in the Netherlands led to the creation of new public policy interest groups (Lijphart, 1990, p. 27). In foreign policy, new demands, such as human rights and decolonisation were being introduced to the agenda. And fourth, the formal structure of the foreign policy process in the Netherlands, based on its constitutional power map, was extended to include non-formal foreign policy actors. Today, the Dutch Government’s most important actors in policy making are the Minister President6, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Dutch political parties represented by parliamentarians (Idem, p. 71-75).

Clearer linkages between the EPC, the institutions of the Community and the policy mechanisms of the EEC were established between 1980 and 1988. The focus was no longer to only facilitate agreement but actively to promote it (Tonra, 2001, p. 153). In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty formed the European Union. The EU replaced the EEC and contains a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and

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Home Affairs (Eur-Lex, 2010), which replaced the EPC. Under the CFSP, the Dutch Government as EU MS was placed under a reinforced political obligation to arrive at and implement a joint foreign and security policy (Tonra, 2001, p.155). Dutch interests regarding the Atlantic Alliance remained reflected in the Western European Union, which with the signing of the Treaty in Brussels in 1948 acted as the European pillar of the NATO (EP, 1997) and which was eventually transferred to the Common Security and Defence Policy in 2009 (EEAS, 2016)7. With the Amsterdam Treaty, that entered into force in 1999, the Dutch Government as EU MS agreed to appoint a High Representative for the CFSP to assist the Foreign Ministers in drawing up and implementing joint foreign policy decisions and giving a higher political profile to the EU’s foreign policy activities (Tonra, 2001, p. 163). With the Treaty of Lisbon, which took effect in December 2009, this post became merged with the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy into the Post of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (EEAS, 2017b). Since December 2011, this High Representative is in charge of the EEAS, which manages the EU’s diplomatic relations with other countries outside the EU and conducts EU foreign and security policy (EEAS, 2017).

2.2. The framework of analysis: Operationalisation of Europeanisation

This section presents the analytical framework of the study. The concept of Europeanisation, explained in the former chapter, is used in this thesis in order to assess the impact of Dutch foreign policy preferences on the EU, also known as the uploading dimension of Europeanisation, and the EU’s impact of Dutch foreign policy, known as the downloading dimension of Europeanisation. Europeanisation is a useful concept when one want to examine the interaction between the EU level and the Dutch level. What is however important to know, is that the risk of this concept is that the EU plays a too big role as political power and actor – other possible influences on Europeanisation may be ignored (Major, 2005, p. 183). As written before however, there are many other factors spread over different levels of analysis, which may have an effect on the foreign policies of EU MS (Wong, 2005, 151). Foreign policy of the Netherlands is the product of a number of actors and structures, both domestic and international. Europeanisation triggered the wish for a foreign policy analysis method to study foreign policy of EU MS (Wong, 2011, p. 157) (Manners & Richard, 2000, p. 243). To draw conclusions about the role of the EU policy in

7 _{The Common Security and Defence Policy is an integral part of the Union’s Common Foreign and Security} Policy (European Parliament, 2016)

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Dutch foreign policy preferences and vice-versa and to determine to what extent these preferences towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are Europeanised, it is useful to present a set of questions to analyse national decisions and preferences. These questions result from the literature on Europeanisation discussed in the theoretical framework of this thesis and are adapted from Gross (2009, p. 21). They allow for an operationalisation of Europeanisation.

Indicators of Europeanisation Operationalisation The salience of the European Union

in Dutch foreign policy preferences, as written in official announcements and reports of meetings

(downloading dimension = policy adaption)

- Was the EU suggested as the appropriate institution? - Was the application of EU considered important, or a

priority, on the part of Dutch governmental actors? - Were EU perspectives named and considered important,

on the part of Dutch governmental actors?

The adherence to EU policy objectives, especially over other considerations and preferences (downloading dimension)

- Did the Netherlands compromise its national preferences in order to accommodate the use of EU instruments / preferences / perspectives?

- Did the Netherlands governmental actors equate national with European preferences in the particular policy case?

- Did governmental actors favour the application of EU policy instruments?

The use, or advocating the use of EU policy in an attempt to increase national influence (uploading dimension = policy projection)

- Did the EU foreign policy represent a vehicle for the Netherlands to increase its influence in the particular policy case?

The use of the EU policy to push through policies on either the domestic or international level (uploading dimension)

- Did the Netherlands pursue national policy preferences through the EU policy in the particular policy case?

Source: (Gross, 2009, p. 21)

The questions above allow me to answer the main research question of this thesis “to what extent are Dutch foreign policy preferences towards Israel Europeanised?”. The ‘extent’ (or degree) of Europeanisation will be measured by categorising the outcome of this study: (1) a ‘high’ extent, (2) a ‘low’ extent and (3) ‘no’ extent of Europeanisation. These categories generate three hypotheses. It is important to keep in mind that these hypotheses have to be applied to the dimension of Europeanisation: (a) the uploading dimension, in which Dutch foreign policy preferences are uploaded to the EU level, and (b) the downloading dimension, in which EU policy is downloaded to the Dutch level. Every hypothesis is formulated in both

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dimensions.

1. A ‘high’ extent of Europeanisation

a. If there is a high extent of the uploading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government advocate their own foreign policy preferences often.

b. If there is a high extent of the downloading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government refer often to the EU’s role or importance in foreign policy towards Israel.

2. A ‘low’ extent of Europeanisation

a. If there is a low extent of the uploading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government to advocate their own foreign policy preferences little.

b. If there is a low extent of the downloading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government refer little to the EU’s role or importance in foreign policy towards Israel.

3. ‘no’ extent of Europeanisation

a. If there is a no extent of the uploading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government not advocating their own foreign policy preferences.

b. If there is a no extent of the downloading dimension of Europeanisation, then one would expect to find the Dutch government refer not to the EU’s role or importance in foreign policy towards Israel.

These hypotheses can be organised in two possible outcomes of the study: no Europeanisation (hypothesis 3) and Europeanisation (hypotheses 1 and 2). This means that the first outcome shows a situation wherein EU acts do not affect Dutch policy preferences or that Dutch policy preferences do not affect the EU policy. And the second outcome shows a situation wherein EU policy does affect Dutch policy preferences or vice-versa.

2.3. Methodology, Relevance and Sources

I cannot answer the research questions presented in the introduction based only on statistical data. The questions are of qualitative nature and will be answered via a qualitative case-study methodology. The case study methodology is useful since the research questions require an

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in-depth understanding of the EU’s impact on Dutch foreign policy while using multiple sources of information. As written above, the purpose of this study is to provide a more detailed analysis of the extent to which Dutch foreign policy preferences are ‘Europeanised’. This means I had to provide particular features of Dutch policy preferences and its differentiation measures taken to exclude settlement-linked activities from bilateral relations with Israel and how this relates to EU policy. This descriptive type of case-study required the theory of Europeanisation to point the data collection in the correct direction (Yin, 2003, p. 40). The comprehensive examination of Dutch foreign policy preferences within the EU context is focussed on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In doing so, it looks at trade as policy area. The main justification of this case selection is the significance of the economic relations with Israel and Palestine for both the EU and the Netherlands. As it is further outlined in chapter three, he economic relation between the EU and Israel is significant. Israel became one of the first countries to be set up with the EEC. As described above, a free and open international trading system has remained one of the top priorities of Dutch foreign policy. The Netherlands has important economic links with Israel, based on historical and cultural ties. Its economic relationship with Palestine is less intense but very interesting in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Especially since the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967, territorial differentiation in trade policies gained greater visibility for the EU. Not much is written on how the Dutch Government deals with this issue of territorial differentiation, which makes this study topical and unique.

This thesis is also relevant because it makes an in-depth contribution to the theoretical literature on Dutch foreign policy, particularly on issues related to the EU and territorial differentiation, and to literature on Europeanisation. Moreover, with changing institutional relationships, exerting influence on EU policies has not become easier. Where first efforts to influence policy were made at the European Commission and at the European Council, institutions like the European Parliament (EP) must now also be influenced (Fernandez-Molina, 2017, p. 232). The EP plays a stronger role in the partnership with Israel since the 2007 Lisbon Treaty because of an increase in the EP’s powers in foreign policy through requirement of EP consent (Ibid.). Further, the agreement at the national level on further European integration has to deal with a more critical attitude among the public and governments (Rood, van Schaik, Boudewijn, & van den Berge, 2009-2, p. 21). This means that Europeanisation may not be so obvious anymore nowadays, which makes it even more interesting to study. Finally, the topic is relevant because of the recent policies that are

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analysed. Where other studies apply Europeanisation to denote domestic adaption as a result of EU membership (Sedelmeier, 2008) (Manners and Whitman, 2000) (von Hirschhausen & Patel, 2010), the time span of the analysis in this thesis centres on the period from the 1990s to the end of 2016. Nonetheless, the first section of this chapter provided a consideration of important changes between 1945 and 1970 that contributed to the way the Dutch Government shapes foreign policy in general. To set the scene, the following chapter draws the attention to events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that changed the EU’s and Dutch foreign policy preference until the 1990s. This overall background serves as a foundation for the empirical chapter that explores the case by focussing on specific Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the conflict.

The case study methodology is combined with a content analysis. On 23 September 1993, the Dutch government started dossier 23 432 ‘The Situation in the Middle-East’ in preparation of future oral consultations among Government officials about the situation. Today, the dossier exists of 580 parliamentary papers (kamerstukken). These papers contain minutes of official meetings, conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Council (Consilium), proceedings, debates, activities, motions, missions, decisions and calendars. The content of this extensive source is used in chapter four to analyse the Dutch response towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it deals with the issue of territorial differentiation. In order to analyse all these documents, I started with computer-assisted searches for occurrence of the terms ‘rules of origin’ (origineregels), ‘provenance’ (herkomst), ‘(occupied) Palestinian territories’ (bezette gebieden/Palestijnse gebieden), ‘settlement’ (nederzetting), economy (economie), ‘trade’ (handel), import, export, products/goods (producten/goederen), labeling (etikettering) and ‘differentiation’ (differentiatie/onderscheid). In doing so, I was able to quickly find content related to territorial differentiation. Besides that, I searched for salience of the EU, adherence to EU policy objectives and the use of EU policies (see former section), by simply looking for the occurrence of the term ‘European Union’, ‘EU’, ‘European Commission’. To find out what words the government officials used when addressing the issue and to be sure I searched for the right terms, I read the first 40 parliamentary papers of dossier number 23 432 before I started with the computer-assisted search in the other 540 documents. While guiding the reader through comments of the Dutch Government on national policies found in the documents of dossier 23 432, I will show the issue of territorial differentiation in Dutch trade policy. The analysis of dossier 23 432 is supplemented by information received from different types of sources.

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This thesis is based on several types of sources. First, academic literature on the study European Integration, Europeanisation and its approaches, the influence of foreign policies on EU member states, EU foreign policy, Dutch foreign policy, the evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the EU and Dutch relations with Israel and Palestine. Second, official documents including official text of laws, regulations and treaties and statistical compilations of economic data. Third, reports and newspaper articles. Fourth, publications from think-tanks and fifth, interviews with high officials with the following job descriptions:8

• Senior Policy Officer at EEAS in Brussels • Head of Division at EEAS in Brussels

• Head of Division at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands in Brussels • Three Senior Policy Officers at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague

The interviewees at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs are selected to gather more detailed and in-depth factual information on whether the Dutch Government implements EU foreign policy and how this may result in changes at the EU level. The interviewee at the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands in Brussels is selected because he closely monitors the issue in Israel regarding territorial differentiation. The interviewees at the European External Action Service (EEAS) are selected because they contribute to the encouragement of political and economic reform in each individual EU Member State. The interviews were rather explanatory and helped to develop a better understanding of the complex and sometimes technical information related to the topic of this thesis. Because of the sensitive political and diplomatic setting9, only a part of the collected material is used in the analytical chapter of this thesis to provide more insight information on the topic.

Conclusion

By addressing important changes that contributed to the way Dutch politicians shaped foreign policy towards the establishment of the EU, this chapter helped to establish an empirical basis for the analysis. Indicators of Europeanisation are adopted in order to operationalise the dimensions of Europeanisation. The hypotheses are helpful to determine the extent of Europeanisation and can be organised in two possible outcomes of the study: no

8_{Please note that transcribed interviews are not part of this thesis. This in order to respect the wishes of the} respondents regarding processing of the information.

9_{As one of the officials explained “we diplomats never disclose information that shouldn’t be disclosed”} (Personal Communication, 2017b)

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Europeanisation and Europeanisation. The case study methodology is combined with a content analysis in order to come to an outcome of this study. It is supplemented a variety of sources. The chapter explained four reasons why the topic of this thesis is topical and unique. First, not much is written on how the Dutch Government deals with this issue of territorial differentiation. Second, it makes a contribution to the theoretical literature on Dutch foreign policy, particularly on issues related to the EU and territorial differentiation and Europeanisation. Third, due to a more critical attitude among the public and governments, Europeanisation may not be so obvious anymore nowadays. Fourth, the topic is topical since the time span of the analysis in this thesis centres on the period from the 1990s to the end of 2016. Before presenting the empirical findings, the following chapter provides detailed information on the background of the central topic: Europeanisation of policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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3. Setting the Scene: The Netherlands, Israel and the European Union

This chapter provides a background to the main topic of this thesis, which helps to facilitate the following chapters. It is therefore first important to provide information about the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict that can be traced to the 19th century, when Jewish Zionism and Arab nationalism were on the rise (Tessler, 2009, pp. 127-140). Both national movements claimed territory over the same area of land. Without paying too much attention to the emergence of these groups, it is valuable to present an overview of how the conflict evolved in order to understand the broader theme in which the relation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority takes place and in order to understand the setting in which the relation between the EU, the Netherlands and Israel is evolved. In the following section, a brief historical outline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict will be presented from 1918 to 1948. In the second section the attention will be drawn to the relationship between Israel, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, the EU and the Netherlands, developed after World War II. The third section presents an overview of the development of economic relations. The last section of this chapter draws the attention to tensions in the trade relation between Israel and the EU as a result of the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

3.1. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1918 as a result of the Arab revolt against the Ottomans (Gerner, 1994). In the peace talks that followed at the end of the war, parts from the Ottoman Empire were handed over to the French to control and part were handed over to the British – including the region called ‘the mandate for Palestine’ (Trueman, 2016). The British stated its support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine when it released the Balfour Declaration (Balfour, 1917), allowing Jewish immigration towards a region mostly populated by Palestine Arabs. Hundreds of thousands of Jews came to Palestine after World War I and World War II in order to escape persecution (Sachar, 2007, p. 196). Jewish immigration and land settlement in Palestine inspired Palestinian resistance and led to formal political protests by community leaders (Tessler, 2009, pp. 128, 246-255) (Sachar, 2007, p. 315); tension between Jews and Arabs grew.

In 1947, violence between certain Jewish and Arab groups grew (Tessler, p. 256). The UN approved the Partition Plan to divide British Palestine into two separate states: one for Jews (Israel) and one for Arabs (Palestine) (United Nations, 2008, p. 7). Jerusalem, where

The europeanisation of national foreign policy : Dutch foreign policy preferences towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy:

Dutch Foreign Policy Preferences towards

the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The Europeanisation of National Foreign Policy:

Dutch Foreign Policy Preferences towards

the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Charlotte de Jong

Abstract

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

Introduction: Assessing the EU’s Impact on Dutch Foreign Policy

1. Theoretical Framework

2. The Analytical Framework

3. Setting the Scene: The Netherlands, Israel and the European Union