Introduction
The European Union (EU) was involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even before it had developed its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which was first articulated by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. In response to the concerns about energy security and stability, it placed the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian1 conflict at the top of its political agenda in the early 1970s. In this respect, the EU participated in numerous diplomatic efforts to mediate between the two sides in order to resolve the dispute. Through the Venice Declaration on June 13, 1980, it recognized the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and self-government, condemned Israeli territorial occupation, and regarded settlements and changes in population and property in the occupied Arab territories as “illegal under international law.”2 Accordingly, the EU has gradually become a key and pivotal player and normative actor in the Palestine-Israel conflict.
