Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Foreign Affairs Council conclusions of May 2012, to which Ireland strongly contributed, were an important statement of EU policy on the Middle East conflict. They identified a range of critical and negative Israeli policies which needed to be changed. Many of these centred around the continuing expansion of settlements, which I have consistently identified as a central issue in the conflict.

The Council’s call for full application of existing EU legislation relating to products from settlements related primarily to the non-eligibility of settlement products for the lower tariffs applicable to goods from Israel. I would have been happy to see a stronger wording on this issue, and have worked since then to increase EU pressure on the issue of settlements.

Further discussion has centred on the issue of labelling of settlement goods, to prevent them being misleadingly labelled as coming from Israel. In February 2013 the EU High Representative committed to prepare EU guidelines on labelling of settlement products, an initiative which I had encouraged and strongly supported.

These guidelines are in preparation, involving both the External Action Service and the European Commission, but there is a tacit acceptance by the Council that it would not be opportune to move to finalise them at this moment, when direct negotiations between the parties are under way in the region. The objective of the negotiations is of course a comprehensive agreement which would resolve the issue of settlements, and of settlement products, in a much more definitive and satisfactory way. The EU also adopted guidelines in June 2013 making clear the non-eligibility of entities in settlements to benefit from EU research funding.

In my view the EU needs to be stronger in following up on the issues identified in the May 2012 Council Conclusions.

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