The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) welcomes the EU guidelines limiting funding of grants, prizes, and financial instruments to entities and activities within Israel proper, and explicitly excluding territories occupied by Israel in 1967 from such funding, in conformity with International and European Law.
The “commission notice” pledges that all companies, institutions or foundations based in Israeli settlements, considered illegal under international law – as frequently recalled by the EU[1] – will be excluded from eligibility for EU grants, scholarships, prizes and financial loans from the 1st of January 2014. This measure guarantees conformity of EU funding to Israel with the international law obligation not to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the occupied territory and to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions.
EMHRN welcomes the fact that the EU has recently geared up its tools to ensure there is coherence between its declarations and its implementation of bilateral relations with Israel by excluding occupied territory from EU-Israel cooperation. In that respect, EMHRN looks forward to the further implementation of the 10 December 2012 EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions, according to which all agreements between the EU and Israel should apply to Israel only and exclude settlement activities and entities.[2] This is in line with the EU’s own guidelines on international humanitarian law (IHL), which provide that “when violations of IHL are reported the EU should undertake effective measures to prevent further violations”.[3] The guidelines on financial support to Israeli settlements complement and enhance the already existing EU tools.
In light of the above, EMHRN calls on the EU to:
– Warrant full implementation of the guidelines, including by reclaiming any financial support already awarded in breach of the guidelines;
– Ensure that Israeli companies operating illegally in the occupied territory or contributing to the occupation, for example by contributing to building the wall/barrier in the West Bank, or manufacturing drones, are prevented from getting EU financial support;
– Guarantee that the 28 member states implement similar measures at the national level to comply with international law.
For further information, see:
EMHRN and APRODEV, EU-Israel relations: promoting and ensuring respect for international law, February 2012.
[1]See, for example the Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions of 10 December 2012: “The European Union reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace”. It is worth noting that Council conclusions are agreed upon by all Foreign Ministers of the EU.
[2] See footnote 1, para. 4.
[3] European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL), para. 16, c.