position:foreign policy chief

EU foreign policy chief cancels visit to Israel – Middle East Monitor
▻https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180609-eu-foreign-policy-chief-cancels-visit-to-israel

https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171211_Netanyahu-EU-meet-8.jpg?resize=1200%2C774&quality=75&strip=all&ssl=1

“Mogherini cancelled her trip to Israel after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to meet her ,” the channel said.

#pitoyable #ue

EU, Norway to convene emergency meeting of donor groups providing Palestinians financial aid - Europe -

The conference, to be held on January 31, is being held against the backdrop of a U.S. threat to cut funding to the Palestinians and a stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks

Noa Landau Jan 10, 2018
read more: ▻https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/1.834111

The European Union and Norway will be convening an emergency meeting of donor groups that provide funding for the Palestinians.
>>Why a big wave of European countries recognizing Palestine is fast approaching | David Makovsky, Opinion
The gathering is being held against the backdrop of the crisis in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the American threat to cut financial assistance to the Palestinians and the stalled reconciliation process between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. The gathering will also examine the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai will be representing Israel at the conference, which will take place on January 31 at the initiative of Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to cut funding to the Palestinians if they don’t return to the negotiating table. Among the possibilities is cutting U.S. funding to UNRWA, which is more than $300 million a year – about a third of the agency’s budget.
A senior Israeli official has told Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only supports a gradual cut. This comes in the context of Israeli security officials’ position that a collapse of humanitarian aid in Gaza could worsen the security situation.

Noa Landau
Haaretz Correspondent

Torture, rape and slavery in Libya: why migrants must be able to leave this hell

Rape, torture and slave labour are among the horrendous daily realities for people stuck in Libya who are desperately trying to escape war, persecution and poverty in African countries, according to a new report by Oxfam and Italian partners MEDU and Borderline Sicilia.

The report features harrowing testimonies, gathered by Oxfam and its partners, from women and men who arrived in Sicily having made the dangerous crossing from Libya. Some revealed how gangs imprisoned them in underground cells, before calling their families to demand a ransom for their release. A teenager from Senegal told how he was kept in a cell which was full of dead bodies, before managing to escape. Others spoke of being regularly beaten and starved for months on end.

Oxfam and its partners are calling on Italy and other European member states to stop pursuing migration policies that prevent people leaving Libya and the abuse they are suffering.

158 testimonies, of 31 women and 127 men, gathered by Oxfam and MEDU in Sicily, paint a shocking picture of the conditions they endured in Libya:

All but one woman said they had suffered from sexual violence
74% of the refugees and other migrants said they had witnessed the murder and /or torture of a travelling companion
84% said they had suffered inhuman or degrading treatment, extreme violence or torture in Libya
80% said they had been regularly denied food and water during their stay in Libya
70% said they had been tied up

►https://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressreleases/2017-08-09/torture-rape-and-slavery-libya-why-migrants-must-be-able-leave
#torture #enlèvements #viols #Libye #asile #migrations #réfugiés #rapport

EU migrant policy in Africa built on incorrect Niger data - IRIN
▻https://www.irinnews.org/news/2017/01/31/exclusive-eu-migrant-policy-africa-built-incorrect-niger-data

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has been using the incorrect figure to promote the success of the bloc’s policies as it looks to sign agreements linking aid to migration controls with five African countries – Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, and Ethiopia.

A deal, now signed with Niger, involves 610 million euros in development aid, some of which, according to the EU, is not tied to migration cooperation.

#migrations #Afrique #Union_européenne #data via @ieva

In refugee crisis, Angela #Merkel stands tall
▻http://www.thearabweekly.com/?id=2742

The debate over the wisdom of opening the door so wide in Sep­tember has rekindled speculation about the future of Merkel. Can she survive the refugee crisis and run, and win, a fourth term? The next federal elections are scheduled for September 2017 and Merkel said in August — before the refugee flood rose to unprecedented levels — that she intended to run.

However, there is renewed spec­ulation that Merkel has an eye on a post that would enhance her global stature: secretary-general of the United Nations.

In February, a group of prominent women from academia formed the Campaign to Elect a Woman UN Secretary-General, pointing out that there have been eight men to hold the job since the world body was established 70 years ago. It’s high time for a woman, the group argues.

Merkel is on the group’s list of po­tential candidates, alongside such figures as International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde, for­mer Irish President Mary Robinson, former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief. Before the campaign listed its candidates alphabetically, Mer­kel topped the list. Her stand on the refugee crisis has won applause from many UN members.

France to Push for UN Security Council Resolution on West Bank Settlements - Diplomacy and Defense - Haaretz
French FM Laurent Fabius told Quartet meet 10 days ago that France intends to advance resolution and hopes to convene follow-up conference in Paris on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Barak Ravid Oct 11, 2015 4:53 AM

▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.679785

The French government intends to advance a United Nations Security Council resolution on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to senior officials in Jerusalem and Western diplomats.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made a comment to that effect 10 days ago, at a meeting in New York of the foreign ministers of the Middle East Quartet. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made use of the comment to convince right-wing members of his cabinet that new construction in the settlements in response to the recent wave of terrorism would cause Israel severe diplomatic damage.

The September 30 meeting in New York was due to include the foreign ministers of the Quartet countries — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — as well as those from Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The French foreign minister had other plans, however. Two Western diplomats and two senior officials in Jerusalem said Fabius demanded to participate in the meeting as well and exerted strong pressure on the Americans and on EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

In the wake of the pressure, it was decided initially that France, Britain and China, all of which are permanent members of the Security Council, would also be invited, even though they are not direct members of the Quartet. The prospect of their participation, however, led other countries, such as Germany, Norway, Japan, Italy, Spain and others, to demand a place at the table as well. It turned into a conference of 30 foreign ministers from around the world, discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without a single Israeli or Palestinian representative.

A statement in summation of the meeting — mainly ceremonial and with short statements by each of the participants — was agreed upon in advance. Fabius again surprised the gathering by presenting a French diplomatic plan with steps that he said would break the deadlock in the peace process.

According to Western diplomats present and the meeting as well as senior Israel officials briefed on the details, Fabius said he was interested in convening a follow-up conference in Paris to which countries interested in advancing a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be invited, but not the two sides themselves.

Immediately afterwards, he uttered a sentence which has caused a lot of nervousness in Jerusalem over the past ten days. According to the diplomats, Fabius said there were many parties pressing for a vote on a Security Council resolution on the settlements and the subject was being explored. Reports of Fabius’ statement reached Israeli diplomats and Netanyahu, who was in New York at the time, within a few hours.

Like most of the participants at the Quartet meeting, Netanyahu and his advisers were surprised by the process Fabius proposed in his remarks. The Israeli leader’s advisers were quick to speak to associates of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and others who were present at the Quartet parley.

The following day, Netanyahu raised the issue at a meeting with Kerry and expressed great concern. The Americans said they do not know what Fabius intends and had no additional information on the subject. A senior Israeli official noted that from inquiries made in subsequent days, it turned out that it was apparently a process that was only in its initial stages.

Fabius’ short, vague sentence regarding a Security Council resolution on Jewish settlements became a central element of a meeting of the Israeli inner cabinet last Monday, a day after Netanyahu’s return from New York. In the face of pressure that was applied by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Immigrant Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin to announce construction in settlements in response to the wave of terrorist attacks, Netanyahu and his adviser Isaac Molho presented information about the French plans.

Despite the fact that there is no draft or proposed text of a French resolution, Netanyahu, Molho and other participants at the meeting contended that it would state that the settlements are not legal. They presented Fabius’ initial idea as a highly dangerous process that could bring about a wave of boycotts and withdrawal of investment from any Israeli entity operating directly or indirectly in the settlements; serious international isolation; and a risk of a trial at the International Court in The Hague against any entity connected to the settlements. They argued that construction in the settlements at this time would provide backing for Fabius’ initiative and cause Israeli serious diplomatic damage.

Channel 2 reported that Netanyahu and Molho also told the ministers that they had received an American ultimatum that an announcement of new construction in the settlement would cause President Barack Obama to refrain from vetoing the French resolution if it would come to a UN Security Council vote. According to several ministers who attended the inner cabinet meeting, Molho said that Kerry had left him threatening voice-mail messages. Senior American officials denied both the existence of an ultimatum and Molho’s story about Kerry’s threatening messages.

Even if Fabius’ plan does take shape, it would not be the first time that the Security Council adopted a resolution on the settlements. Resolution 465 in 1980, which was passed unanimously without an American veto, stated that the settlements built beyond the 1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, were not legal. The resolution also called for all countries to refrain from providing any form of assistance to construction in the settlements.

Major Zuwara human trafficker shot dead in Tripoli : report |
▻https://www.libyaherald.com/2015/09/25/major-zuwara-human-trafficker-shot-dead-in-tripoli-report

https://www.libyaherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Migrant-boat.jpg

A Zuwara militia leader said to be a key operator in smuggling migrants across the Mediterranean was reported to have been killed early this morning in Tripoli.

Salah Al-Maskhout was leaving the home of relatives near the Tripoli Medical Centre accompanied by a security team and colleagues when armed men blocked the road and confronted them.

In the subsequent shootout, he and the eight men with him were shot dead.

European Parliament Expresses Support for Labeling Settlement Goods
This is first time the European Parliament expresses support for differentiating between Israel and settlements; Netanyahu says motion is unjustified and harms peace.

Barak Ravid Sep 10, 2015 Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.675568

The European Parliament expressed its support Thursday for putting special labels on consumer goods produced in West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights settlements, as well as for “differentiating” between the EU’s attitude toward Israel and to the settlements. Five hundred and twenty-five EU parliamentarians voted for the motion, which dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, 70 voted against and 31 abstained.
The motion stated that the European Parliament: “Welcomes the EU’s commitment – in the spirit of differentiation between Israel and its activities in the occupied Palestinian Territory – to ensuring that all agreements between the EU and Israel must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, takes note of the letter sent to the VP/HR by 16 EU Foreign Ministers on 13 April 2015, encouraging her to take the lead within the Commission with a view to completing the work on EU-wide guidelines on the labelling of Israeli settlement produce.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the expression of support. “The European Parliament decision is unjustified, it is just a perversion of justice and a distortion of reason, and I think that it also harms peace, it doesn’t advance it,” he said. “The roots of the conflict are not territories and the roots of the conflict are not the settlements. We already have a historical memory as to what happened when Europe marked products of Jews.” 
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem responded angrily to the motion, especially the parts dealing with the settlements. The reason, according to senior officials in the ministry, is that this is the first time the EU supported a “differentiation” between Israel and the settlements and mentions the need to label products from the settlements. “The problem with this clause is the erosion and the change in the rhetoric in Europe with regard to the settlements,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said that the EU motion was “discriminatory with a sharp smell of boycott,” and added that “under the guise of a technical step, this is an attempt to force a diplomatic solution instead of encouraging the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. Europe is acting with hypocritical sanctimoniousness toward Israel when it does not consider proposing similar solutions to northern Cyprus or Western Sahara.”
The EU decision comes at a time in which discussions in the European Commission – the EU’s executive body – on the matter of labeling products from West Bank settlements are in the home stretch. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said herself at a press conference on Saturday that work on this matter was very close to completion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) with U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron in London.AP
A senior Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem said that various European diplomats have conveyed messages to Israel over the past few weeks that the publication of directives for marking products from settlements would be renewed in October. The EU decision is expected to give significant political backing to Mogherini on labeling the products and increase pressure by the 16 countries who believe the matter should be advanced.
Earlier this week the secretary general of the European External Action Service, Helga Schmid, visited Jerusalem and discussed the labeling directives with her Israeli counterparts. A senior official in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said discussion turned into a pointed argument.
Foreign Ministry officials said that the labeling directives are the first step on a slippery slope that could lead to a boycott of products from the settlements and on all Israeli products in general. The European representatives said that these were not sanctions or a boycott on Israel but only a technical step to apply EU legislation with regard to consumer protection.
“When we told then this was a boycott they blew up and really lost their minds,” a senior Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem said. “We told them that labeling products from the settlements is like a door, that once opened, cannot be closed. We made clear to them that we did not see this as a technical step, but as a political step against Israel in every sense.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Foreign Ministry officials are making major efforts to delay the publication of the directives. Netanyahu raised the subject in meetings with EU President Donald Tusk, with the Lithuanian prime minister and with the prime minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn, who visited Jerusalem over the past week.
The issue also came up in a meeting between Netanyahu and British Prime Minister David Cameron Thursday in London. At the beginning of the meeting Netanyahu reiterated the message that he stated frequently in recent weeks as part of his attempts to block moves against the settlements. “I want to say here in 10 Downing Street, and reaffirm again that I am ready to resume direct negotiations with the Palestinians with no conditions whatsoever to enter negotiations, and I’m willing to do so immediately," Netanyahu said.
Mattia Toaldo, a Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Haaretz that “this is the first time in my memory that one of the 3 top EU institutions uses the word ’differentiation’ for this policy. This clarifies the distinction with boycotts and makes it more acceptable for a number of European governments. On the one hand, this is gradually becoming an automatic policy that is implemented to bring bureaucracy in line with EU laws and international law. On the other hand, some politicians still see it as an alternative to the peace process, and this could block it in the future given that Mogherini now has the imperative to restart talks.”

Barak Ravid
Haaretz Correspondent

Statewatch News Online: EU: EU moves ahead with military response to migration; pushes for Europe-wide migrant “quotas”
▻http://statewatch.org/news/2015/may/eu-migration-plans.html

The EU’s proposal to try and deal with the crisis in the Mediterranean by destroying boats used to transport migrants is moving ahead, with foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini making the EU’s case for military action to the UN Security Council today. The proposed military effort will feature in the Commission’s forthcoming ’Agenda on Migration’, to be published on Wednesday (pdf), which will revolve around four themes: “a strong common asylum policy, the fight against trafficking and the prevention of irregular migration, managing external borders, and a new policy on legal migration.”

According to The Guardian:

“Britain is drafting the UN security council resolution that would authorise the mission... It would come under Italian command, have the participation of around 10 EU countries, including Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, and could also drag in Nato although there are no initial plans for alliance involvement.

”...The British draft is believed to call for the ’use of all means to destroy the business model of the traffickers’."

Yesterday Member States’ defence ministers met in the French city of Lorient to discuss “the sharing of intelligence about smugglers to prevent the flow of migrants.” They “agreed on sharing of intelligence about smugglers to prevent the flow of desperate migrants via Libya, but said a UN mandate would be necessary if effective action were to be taken.”

Libya is opposed to the proposed military action. Libya’s ambassador to the UN told the BBC World Service:

"The Libyan government has not been consulted by the European Union. They have left us in the dark about what their intentions are, what kind of military actions they are going to take in our territorial waters, so that is very worrying.

(...)

“We want to know... how they can distinguish between the fishers’ boats and the traffickers’ boats.”

The EU’s policing agency, Europol, has already set up a ’Joint Operational Team’ (JOT MARE) (pdf), which is supposed to “tackle the organised criminal groups who are facilitating the journey of migrants by ship across the Mediterranean Sea to the EU.”

Presumably the language of the proposed UN Security Council resolution will be rather more precise than the press reports surrounding it, which have freely conflated the terms ’smuggling’ and ’trafficking’. In international law, there are significant differences between the two acts. Perhaps the key point to note, as put in article published by OpenDemocracy last November, is that:

“Migrants consent to being smuggled and their relationship with the smuggler stops once they have reached their destination. As defined under the law, victims of human trafficking do not always consent to the end result of the transaction, even if at times they do, and even if they do originally agree to a new job, a new location, or to being smuggled. The initial consent becomes legally irrelevant to the crime once the trafficker has used threat, coercion, or fraud to exploit the victim.”

EU Chief Speaks Out Against Arms Supplies for Kiev - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/06/world/europe/ap-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-.html

The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Friday came out against a bipartisan call in the United States to provide lethal, defensive weapons to Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists.

House Speaker John Boehner and a group of top Democrats and Republicans wrote to President Obama calling for deliveries but so far have found few backers in the 28-nation EU.

Federica Mogherini said Friday that “the European Union is doing enough” and insisted that the implementation of the peace deal brokered in Minsk last month “is the way to go forward.”

La Haute Représentante de l’Union pour les affaires étrangères et la politique de sécurité Federica Mogherini est réputée être compréhensive avec V. V. Poutine. Contrairement au Président du Conseil européen, Donald Tusk.

EU foreign ministers attack call to soften Russia stance - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/03fdda9c-9ff2-11e4-aa89-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=intl#axzz3PJAwjHR1

A suggestion from the EU’s new foreign policy chief that the bloc consider softening its approach toward Russia drew a harsh response from the UK, Poland and other hawks as the fighting intensified in eastern Ukraine.

Federica Mogherini, the head of the EU’s external action service, had circulated a discussion paper among the bloc’s foreign ministers exploring a potential rapprochement with Russia, including a pathway to ease some economic sanctions against Moscow.

Yet at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, diplomats from London, Warsaw and the Baltic states, among others, blasted it as a strategic blunder at a time when Moscow appeared to be ramping up the conflict in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.

La successeuse de Catherine Ashton, réputée “pro-Poutine”, en visite à Kiev.

New EU foreign policy chief Mogherini, known for her pro-Putin sympathies, to visit Ukraine in new role
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/kyiv-post-plus/new-eu-foreign-policy-chief-mogherini-known-for-her-pro-putin-sympathies-t

Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, will visit Kyiv on Dec. 16-17 amid skepticism over her soft stance on sanctions against Russia in her previous role as Italy’s foreign minister.

In her new role, Mogherini must carry out the foreign policy of the 28-nation EU, but her cordial visits to Putin after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the start of the Kremin-backed separatist war against Ukraine, are upsetting to many Ukrainians and others in the West who view opposition to sanctions as appeasement of Putin.
(…)
Mogherini almost didn’t get her job because of her pro-Kremlin sentiments. Her spokesperson, Catherine Ray, is married to lead lobbyist of Russian energy monopolist Gazprom company. Several EU member states blocked her first nomination as EU foreign policy chief, and a vehement Russian critic Lithuania President Dalia Grybauskaite openly called her “pro-Kremlin.”

Estonian Foreign Ministry confirms authenticity of leaked call on Kiev snipers — RT News
▻http://rt.com/news/estonia-confirm-leaked-tape-970

The Estonian Foreign Ministry has confirmed the recording of his conversation with EU foreign policy chief is authentic. Urmas Paet said that snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were hired by Maidan leaders.

►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEJFp0lUIQg

(…)
“We reject the claim that Paet was giving an assessment of the opposition’s involvement in the violence," the statement stressed, adding that the FM was only providing an overview of what he had heard during his Kiev visit.
(…)
The call took place after Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet visited Kiev on February 25, following the peak of clashes between the pro-EU protesters and security forces in the Ukrainian capital.

It was reportedly uploaded to the web by officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones.

During the conversation, Paet stressed that “there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”

According to the Estonian FM, “all the evidence shows” that the “same snipers” at Maidan were shooting at people from both sides – the police and the protesters.

#Iran #nuclear talks enter third day
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iran-nuclear-talks-enter-third-day

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/600152-01-08.jpg

US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton before their meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister on November 8, 2013, in Geneva, on the second day of talks with Iran on their nuclear program. (Photo: AFP - Jason Reed)

Crunch talks between Iran and world powers stretched into an unscheduled third day Saturday as top diplomats pushed for a deal to end the decade-old standoff over Iran’s nuclear (...)

#Top_News

#Israel slams possible deal ahead of #Iran #nuclear talks
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-slams-possible-deal-ahead-iran-nuclear-talks

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/4cols/leading_images/588632-01-08.jpg

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, left, speaks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif on November 7, 2013 before the start of two days of closed-door nuclear talks in Geneva. (Photo: AFP - Fabrice Coffrini)

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday before heading to Geneva for landmark three-way talks with Iran and the EU seeking to negotiate claims on Iran’s nuclear program. The Israeli prime (...)

#Top_News

EU to ensure settlement guidelines will not harm ties with Israel, says Ashton
Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.545659

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton said on Saturday that the EU will make sure the new settlement guidelines do not harm relations with Israel.

Speaking in Vilnius after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Ashton said that the guidelines - which state that any private Israeli entity that wants to receive funding from the EU must demonstrate that it has no links to the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Golan Heights – will be implemented “sensitively, and we of course want to continue to have a strong relationship with Israel.” 

Ashton’s comments came after Kerry met in Vilnius with the EU’s 28 foreign ministers, urging them to postpone the new guidelines.

A senior U.S. official said Kerry asked the foreign ministers to support ongoing Israeli-Palestinian talks and postpone the implementation of the guidelines so as not to hinder the negotiations. The official said that the foreign ministers showed “willingness and openness to consider Kerry’s request.”

Catherine Ashton: Israeli settlement products to be labeled in EU by end of 2013
By Barak Ravid
Haaretz, 23rd of July
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.537315

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.

Settlements are illegal, says Ashton on plans for Israeli settlements in and around East Jerusalem

▻http://www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id_type=1&id=33289&lang_id=450

Ah Bon ? Ils sont gentils à la Commission, il ne font de mal à personne, y a rien à craindre, ça va.

EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton has reiterated the EU’s long-standing position about settlements, in the light of recent media reports about renewed plans for Israeli settlements in and around East Jerusalem. “Settlements are illegal under international law and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible,” said a statement issued by her spokesperson.

http://www.enpi-info.eu/img/news/8624525055_4f1825e91c.jpg

EU urged to secure Palestinian prisoner’s release from Israeli jail | World news | guardian.co.uk

►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/17/palestinian-prisoner-israeli-jail?CMP=twt_gu

The European Union must take “immediate and concrete steps” to secure the release of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail who has been refusing food for almost nine months and is in a critical condition, a senior Palestinian official has demanded.

In a letter to Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, Saeb Erekat said the life of Samer Issawi “hangs in the balance” and warned his death could result in serious violence and damage efforts to revive the peace process.

#israel #palestine #prisonnier-palestinien #droits-humains