EU funding of research activities carried out in illegal Israeli settlements
11.7.2013
Question for written answer E-008337-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Véronique De Keyser (S&D) , Teresa Riera Madurell (S&D) , Keith Taylor (Verts/ALE) , Willy Meyer (GUE/NGL) , Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (GUE/NGL) , Emer Costello (S&D)
The EU is obliged to respect international law in the exercise of its powers and to ensure consistency between its policies and activities.
In the context of EU-Israel relations, the EU and its Member States have reaffirmed their commitment ‘to fully and effectively implement existing EU legislation’[1] and ‘to ensure that — in line with international law — all agreements between the State of Israel and the European Union must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip’[2].
Soon-to-be published Commission guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activities for EU funding are expected to clarify the EU’s obligation to exclude any entity or activity that would cause the EU to render aid or assistance to maintain Israeli settlements or to recognise as lawful the internationally illegal acts that create and maintain them.
1. Does the Commission consider that existing EU legislation (including EU case-law), together with the relevant bodies of international law, provides no legal basis for excluding activities from funding because they are to be carried out in Israeli settlements that have been established in occupied territories?
2. Does the Commission intend to sign a major new project agreement under the FP7 with Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories Ltd (ADSL)?
3. Does the Commission have to wait for the publication of the guidelines to conclude that the EU cannot recognise as lawful the internationally illegal acts that are responsible for the creation and operation of ADSL’s settlement-based facilities, and that the Commission may therefore neither employ nor subsidise others’ employment of them?
- [1] Council Conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process of 14 May 2012.
- [2] Council Conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process of 10 December 2012.
OJ C 65 E, 05/03/2014