The European Commission decided on Tuesday 30 April not to register a European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) entitled 'Stopping trade with Israeli settlements operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'.
This ECI is "legally inadmissible as it manifestly falls outside the Commission's powers to act according to the EU Treaties", the Commission explains.
The organisers asked the Commission to "formally recognise that trade with Israeli settlements is prohibited both for the European Union and for all Member States".
The Commission explains that a legal act on this subject could only be adopted on the basis of Article 215 of the Treaty (restrictive measures). But before such a legal act can be adopted by the EU Council, it would be necessary to decide, within the framework of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, to allow the "interruption or reduction" of economic and financial relations with the non-Member State concerned. The Commission therefore does not have the legal power to make a proposal for such a decision, but rather the EEAS has this power.
A Commission spokesperson said Israeli products receive preferential treatment when they enter the EU, but settlement products do not. "We strictly respect this".
4 new registered ECIs. The Commission has decided to register four new ECIs which concern: -'the fast, fair and effective solution to climate change' (to introduce a steadily increasing price on fossil fuels); -'ending the aviation fuel tax exemption in Europe' (introduction of a tax on kerosene); - 'cohesion policy for the equality of the regions and sustainability of the regional cultures'; -'PRO-NUTRISCORE' (simplified nutrition labelling for food products). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)