A group of over 100 MEPs has written a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, to address an “urgent appeal for a Commission legislative proposal to ban EU trade with illegal Israeli settlements.” The letter was promoted by Irish Renew Europe MEP, Barry Andrews, and signed mostly by members of S&D, Left, Greens, and Renew, with some from the Populars. “We write to you ahead of your State of the European Union speech and following the Joint Declaration of Foreign Ministers on the two-State solution on September 8. We urge you to finally present a legislative proposal to ban EU trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories,” the parliamentarians write.
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“The European Union has long claimed a leadership role in the region, as one of the main supporters of the two-State solution. Yet it is the United Kingdom and Canada, two of our key partners, who have committed to act in support of this goal by banning trade with the settlements,” the letter reads. “The urgency to act has only increased since the Israeli government published a tender for the E1 settlement on August 18, violating a long-standing EU red line. As guardian of the EU treaties, which requires respect for international law in the EU’s external action, the Commission must propose an appropriate regulation without further delay.”
“The Council Legal Service has confirmed that Article 207 TFEU,” the one concerning trade policy and thus allowing the use of qualified majority voting rather than unanimity, “can serve as the legal basis for such a measure, a conclusion shared by over 100 lawyers and dozens of human rights organizations and trade unions,” they write.
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Corrado (PD): “Settlements are a violation of international law”
Among the signatories of the appeal is also Annalisa Corrado, MEP and environment head of the PD. The settlements – Corrado emphasizes in a statement – “are a violation of international law and a serious obstacle to the two-State solution. Europe must move from declarations to actions and use all the tools at its disposal to stop this expansion, supported, fueled, and promoted by Netanyahu’s genocidal government and the Israeli army.”
“The legal basis to act exists and, as highlighted in the letter, Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union allows intervention through common commercial policy. Now the Commission must act: respect for international law cannot be a variable geometry principle and can no longer be trampled before our eyes without an adequate response,” she concludes.
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