Mr. Éamonn Meehan:

I remind the Deputy of the existing EU policy around labelling. The EU differentiates between goods coming from Israel and goods coming from the occupied Palestinian territory. They are required to be labelled. That policy only arose in the noughties because, first of all, the UK, then a member of the EU, insisted that it would require labelling on products coming from settlements. Denmark moved next and a number of other countries moved thereafter. At that point, the Commission decided it could not have a free-for-all and opted to introduce an EU-wide measure. That is why we have labelling. That in itself is not effective because it is not fully complied with by trade from settlements and by Israel. It is, however, an example of a mover deciding to do something and deciding on a policy, with another country and then another following. Eventually, because the Commission does not want a free-for-all, it decides this must become EU policy. As Dr. Reynolds has outlined, we have already seen the change in this from the June meeting of the foreign ministers and the paper presented by Kaja Kallas. The same thing is happening here.

We obviously look forward to the outcome of today's meeting. Is taking unilateral action pointless? Absolutely not. I was involved in the anti-apartheid campaign here in the 1980s and early 1990s. We were told precisely the same thing about banning South African goods coming into this country. That was highly effective.