For the second time in the past four months, the Paris Commercial Court has overturned a decision by the French government to ban Israeli companies from a defense exhibition and has ruled that they can exhibit at the Euronaval event, which opens on Monday. The court was responding to a petition by the Manufacturers' Association of Israel, Israel Shipyards, the Israel France Chamber of Commerce, Elbit Systems, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Orbit.
This latest ruling represents a major improvement on the previous ruling on the Eurosatory defense and security exhibition in June, which was only handed down after the event had begun, meaning it was too late for Israeli defense companies to actually participate.
The petition claimed, among other things, that the decision by the French government on the Euronaval exhibition directly harms the ability of Israeli companies to participate and compete in the European defense market. In general, the petition focused on the principle of equality and obligation of EU member states to ensure an open and free competitive market, while maintaining fair and non-discriminatory trade rules.
Contrary to President Emmanuel Macron's decision regarding the Eurosatory exhibition, in which the appearance of Israeli companies was comprehensively prohibited, at the Euronaval exhibition, which will take place from next Monday to Thursday, Israeli companies were approved to participate in the exhibition, but without any stand or pavilion, apparently, as an attempt to draw lessons from the decision concerning Eurosatory.
At prominent exhibitions in general and at professional exhibitions in particular such as Euronaval, companies usually launch new products. For example, at the previous exhibition in 2022, Israel Shipyards took advantage of the opportunity to unveil the Saar S80 corvette.
Euronaval, which has been held for the past 50 years, is this year expecting 300 companies to exhibit from 30 countries. While banning Israel, France is allowing Turkey to exhibit as well as companies from the US, Germany, Brazil, Finland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, UK, Colombia, Denmark and Greece.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 31, 2024.
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