Brussels, 13/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 11 November, the chair of the European Parliament's international trade committee Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) and the Parliament's rapporteur for EU-Israel trade Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium) hailed the European Commission's adoption of rules (via an interpretative notice to the EU countries) on indicating the origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967.
“The new EU-wide labelling guidelines for settlement products (…) finally ensure compliance with the EU position not to recognise Israel's sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, and guarantee that EU consumers are correctly informed about where their products come from”, said Lange. He also stated that this interpretative notice would not create any new legislative rules but solely aimed to establish a “coherent understanding” of the existing EU rules.
“Labelling of Israeli settlement products will allow identification of illegal products, in accordance with EU consumer protection law and existing bilateral agreements applicable to settlement products. It does not contribute towards a boycott of Israel, contrary to what its government is stating, but is instead an application of EU legislation on consumer protection”, Arena stated.
“Currently there is no proper labelling of settlement products. Supporters of the boycott against Israel use this confusion to call for a boycott of all Israeli products. With a specific label, European consumers would not hesitate any more to buy Israeli products because they will have certainty that these products are coming from an uncontested territory where production conditions are not in breach of human rights”, Arena added. She also said that the EU's labelling rules are “part of the comprehensive policy of the European Union in the Middle East aimed at promoting peace through the creation of an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable Palestinian state according to the 1967 borders living side by side with the State of Israel in peace, security and mutual recognition”.
Alyn Smith wants to go further. On behalf of the Greens/EFA Group, Alyn Smith from Scotland, who is a member of the European Parliament's international trade committee, hails the move on labelling but calls for the guidelines to be extended to cover all trade dealings (not just agricultural produce) with illegal settlements. He said that the EU guidelines on settlement produce were “a step forward to ensure the EU enforces international law and does not fall complicit to Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories (…) While these guidelines will have limited economic impact, they will underline to the Israelis that the EU is finally starting to get serious (…) The EU guidelines are a reminder that we recognise Israel's right to exist and has a right to expect security within its own borders. But (…) this does not give Israel a right to illegally occupy Palestinian land or allow settlers to illegally occupy Palestinian land and exploit it for their profit”, Smith stated. “But we can and should do much more”, he said, calling for an improvement to the guidelines to prevent EU-based companies from issuing bank loans and mortgages to Israeli settlements. He also wanted an improvement to the guidelines so that qualifications from settlement-based institutions not be recognised, and so that the tax-exempt status be ended for European charities dealing with Israeli settlements. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)