Brussels, 12/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 11 March, 23 MEPs called on the EU - in a letter to High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton - to use its association agreement to put an end to the Israeli settlement building, which is illegal under international law, and to put an end to human rights violations. In their letter, MEPs from the S&D, Greens, ALDE and GUE/NGL Groups stress that Israel does not respect Article 2 of the association agreement on the mutual respect of human rights and democratic principles. “For the EU to remain a credible negotiator vis-à-vis third countries (…), it is necessary that the EU enforces these conditionality clauses”, they state. Underlining that European criticism of the settlement building has had no effect, they say that “we need a new approach and decisive EU action”. Reiterating that one of the objectives of the association agreement is to step up political dialogue, the MEPs call “upon the Commission to formally address the aforementioned concerns as soon as possible in the Association Committee (…) and to consider the (partial) suspension of the agreement”. (CG/transl.fl)