Catherine Ashton: Israeli Settlement Products To Be Labeled In EU By End Of 2013
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is seeking to draft comprehensive guidelines on labeling settlement products by the end of this year, she told several senior EU officials last week.
She made the comment in a letter - a copy of which has been obtained by Haaretz - sent on July 8 to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the seven commissioners responsible for justice, industry, consumer protection, agriculture, taxation, trade and internal market. The commission is the EU's executive arm.
The letter's goal was to recruit support from all the relevant commissioners for issuing guidelines on labeling settlement products that would apply to all 28 EU member states. Ashton said she would need the commissioners' help and political backing, and asked each of them to instruct their staffs to work on the issue.
Her effort comes on the heels of a new EU directive that prohibits funding, investing in or awarding grants and prizes to entities with activities in the settlements. This directive also said that any new agreements between Israel and the European Union should include a provision stating that Jewish communities in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are not part of Israel, and hence not covered by the agreement.
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