During the evening of Monday 6 February, a European source told EUROPE that the EU-Israel Association Council, which had initially been due to take place in Brussels on 28 February, would be postponed.
Although no date had been officially confirmed, several European sources previously mentioned it would be 28 February. In the current state of events, this date no longer seems likely. At the EU Foreign Affairs Council on Monday, several foreign affairs ministers had reportedly thought that the time was not right to hold such a Council, with the Israeli government multiplying the announcements over recent weeks of its settlement building – which endanger a two-state solution. Another source confirmed that certain member states were sceptical about this Council being held, and wanted more time to talk about it before all 28 member states adopted the agenda of the meeting and determined their common positions.
During a press conference after the Foreign Affairs Council on Monday 6 February, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced that the EU had decided to “start preparing the Association Council so that the exact content and scope for this could be discussed and decided upon unanimously by the 28 member states”.
One of the big member states wants a discussion on this subject at the Foreign Affairs Council on 6 March. “The Association Council is the institutional moment when the two parties, the EU with the member states, all of them, on one side, and the partner, can discuss bilateral issues first and foremost” but also regional and foreign issues, Mogherini stated. Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said that “the Association Council was not a reward but a bilateral relationship that is established”.
S&D Group condemns the Knesset’s decision on legalising several thousand housing units.
Before the European External Action Service had given its response, the S&D Group at the European Parliament had already condemned the Israeli Knesset’s decision during the night of 6-7 February to legalise retroactively nearly 4,000 housing units, which have been built on private Palestinian lands in the West Bank. The new legislation will enable Israeli lands to be declared from private Palestinian lands on which Israelis have built without authorisation. The Palestinian owners would be compensated financially or would be allocated other land.
In the view of the S&D Group leader at the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, this is a measure which is “unjustified and illegal" and "against Palestinian people's rights which will further undermine the foundations of the two-state solution and the chances for peace and stability”. The issue of Israeli settlement building will be debated at the European Parliament’s plenary session on 13-16 February. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)