Thursday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council, António Costa will be in Jordan’s capital to meet with King Abdullah II during the first ever EU-Jordan summit.
“Leaders will also discuss the current global challenges, including the situation in the Middle East, Ukraine, security, trade and migration,” a press release from the European Commission reads.
As President of the European Council António Costa has said, Jordan plays “a pivotal role” and is “a strategic partner for the European Union”. This is partly due to the country’s relatively stable political landscape and its long-standing alignment with the EU on peace efforts in the Middle East, including support for the two-state solution.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict will be high on the agenda at the summit in Amman. James Moran, associate senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), former EU ambassador to Egypt and former head of delegation to Jordan, told Euronews that Palestine is of particular importance for the Hashemite Kingdom.
“Jordan is home to millions of Palestinian refugees from recent past waves of refugees, many of them were offered Jordanian nationality. As a matter of fact, more than half the population of Jordan is of Palestinian origin,” he told Euronews.
Jordan could play an important role in any future peace plan. “There’s been a lot of talk about Jordanian troops, because Jordan has a pretty well organised army, participating in the International Stabilisation Force, which is foreseen for Gaza.” However, Moran noted that for now the Kingdom has not indicated any involvement, as the peace plan remains very much up in the air, with Israel not respecting its ceasefire commitments.
“Looking out beyond the immediate future, any solution in Palestine is going to involve Jordan, not only in terms of the people-to-people aspect, but probably militarily as well. Jordanian troops are likely to be more accepted by populations in Gaza,” Moran told Euronews.
Syria, its reconstruction and the return home of refugees will also be discussed. Jordan is a major host of Syrian refugees and, according to Moran, around 200,000 have recently returned from Jordan to Syria. He believes the EU could learn from the Jordanian approach to encouraging Syrians to return, now that reconstruction in Syria has begun.
This summit also matters for Jordan’s economy. According to the former EU ambassador, “Jordan’s economy is always under stress for all sorts of reasons.” He told Euronews that the Kingdom is continually in need of international support and that the EU has already provided significant assistance “especially in the last year or so, €500 million in macro-financial assistance, and so on. I’m sure that will be on the agenda again.”
The summit comes one year after a Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership was signed between the EU and Jordan, which includes a financial and investment package worth €3 billion.
