MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Impact of Israeli colonial exploitation and extractivism on Palestinian agriculture – E-002150/2025(ASW)

The EU has been consistently clear in its position that settlements are illegal under international law and has repeatedly condemned Israel’s settlement policy and the occupation of the Palestinian territory that began in 1967.

EU positions and policies are fully aligned on the United Nations resolutions regarding the status of the o ccupied Palestinian territory (OPT)[1] and are overall consistent with the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024[2] as regards the duty of non-recognition, the duty to distinguish in the dealings with Israel between its territory and the OP T , and the duty of non-assistance .

The EU differentiation policy implies that goods, including agricultural products, originating from Israeli settlements in occupied territories since June 1967 do not fall within the scope of the EU-Israel Association Agreement[3] and therefore cannot benefit from trade preferences under the Agreement.

Moreover, in 2015, the Commission adopted an Interpretative Notice to provide guidance on the labelling of goods, including agricultural products, from Israeli settlements in the OP T and how the existing legislation on labelling should be applied[4]. The approach of the Interpretative Notice was confirmed by a judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in 2019[5]. Official controls on the labelling of imported goods are primarily the responsibility of Member States, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls on the agri-food chain[6].

• [1] https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/ltd/n24/266/48/pdf/n2426648.pdf.
• [2] Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 , https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/186/186-20240719-adv-01-00-en.pdf.
• [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:411c0668-144d-44a1-a5e3-dd2342f7a5b5.0017.02/DOC_1&format=PDF.
• [4] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52015XC1112(01).
• [5] Judgment of 12 November 2019, Organisation juive européenne and Vignoble Psagot Ltd v Ministre de l’Économie et des Finances, C 363/18, EU:C:2019:954, https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf;jsessionid=A16C97FD2EEC535918F5478A663AC7D6?text=&docid=220534&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=8005913.
• [6] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2017/625/oj.