EU backs down from product-labeling bid

T. Belman. According to Europe Has Given Up on Obama, Europe is running scared because they sorely need American leadership and it is not there. So add Europe to the long list of former American allies that can no longer count on Obama. Thus Europe can’t get too uppity with Israel. Neither can Turkey.

 

“The conversation resolved the tensions and we are, Israel and the EU, back to good and close relations,” says Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, following new agreement that will see EU countries individually determine product-labeling policy.

bY Shlomo Cesana, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

MoghariniThe Foreign Ministry reported that relations with the European Union are “close and friendly” again after tensions arose last year over the bloc’s decision to label Israeli exports manufactured beyond the Green Line.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the sides had “overcome the crisis” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini spoke by phone Friday.

He said Israel received assurances the move “is not a political step to determine future borders or to boycott Israel.”

The conversation between Netanyahu and Mogherini followed a negotiation process on the issue led by Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold. After the agreement was reached, Mogherini invited Netanyahu to Brussels, an offer which he accepted.

The European Commission’s original labeling resolution was set to be adopted by all 28 member states and to include goods manufactured in the Golan Heights, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

In November, Israel suspended contacts with EU officials on the political process with the Palestinians to protest the move.

Under the new agreement, the EU said it will leave product-labeling decisions up to each individual member country.

Israel has said that it will continue to fight bids to label products in each country that intends to do so.

The EU also promised that it would not assist in labeling efforts and that it would oppose any boycott or isolation campaigns against Israel. The EU further announced that it is opposed to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, that it is dedicated to Israel’s security and that it condemns terrorism and incitement to violence.

In response to the move, Nahshon said that Israel would no longer insist on the exclusion of EU bodies from peace talks with the Palestinians.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in April 2014. While the United States has traditionally played the lead role in peace efforts in the region, the EU is Israel’s largest trading partner and is the biggest donor to the Palestinians, and is looking to play a larger role in peace negotiations

“The conversation resolved the tensions and we are, Israel and the EU, back to good and close relations,” Nahshon said in a message to the media.

Speaking to Israel Hayom about the product-labeling initiative, Gold said: “In addition to the economic damage that it may cause Israeli industries beyond the Green Line, I feel that there was also an attempt here to predetermine the future borders between Israel and the Palestinians when the Europeans had said in the past that the borders would be determined exclusively through direct negotiations between the two sides.

“We received a clear commitment from Mogherini that there is no attempt here to determine the borders between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel stood its ground on each issue discussed with the European Union.”

Meanwhile, Mogherini told journalists on Friday that the Middle East Quartet “was seriously concerned about the viability of a two-state solution”.

The Quartet is represented by Mogherini, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and a special envoy of the U.N. secretary-general.

“The [Middle East] Quartet expressed its serious concern that current trends on the ground, including continued acts of violence against civilians, ongoing settlement activity and the high rate of demolitions of Palestinian structures, are dangerously imperilling the viability of a two-state solution,” Mogherini told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

“The Quartet underscored that both sides must swiftly demonstrate — through policies and actions — a genuine commitment to a two-state solution in order to rebuild trust and avoid a cycle of escalation. It emphasized that a robust Palestinian economy and an enhanced government capacity would serve as a cornerstone of a Palestinian state and that genuine Palestinian unity on the basis of democracy and the PLO principles is essential to uniting Gaza and the West Bank under one legitimate democratic Palestinian authority,” she added.

February 14, 2016 | 7 Comments »

Leave a Reply

7 Comments / 7 Comments

  1. Federica Mogherini represents the Marxists of Europe. There can be no nation-states under her belief system, including Israel. The EU must be broken up if Israel is to survive.

  2. Minister urges Israel to begin annexing parts of West Bank

    He said his view was not shared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    but has never moved to annex any of the territory beyond extending sovereignty — which Israel argues is different from annexation — to East Jerusalem. It later applied the same status to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.

    Reports of negotiations with Palestinians in recent years have pointed to Israel seeking to keep certain areas of the West Bank where there are major settlement blocs in exchange for land swaps. Isolated settlements elsewhere in Area C would not be included.

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/minister-urges-israel-to-begin-annexing-parts-of-west-bank/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=0a410d6d63-2016_02_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-0a410d6d63-54816837

    some questions:
    What is the difference, and why, between annexation and extending sovereignty?
    Why discuss land swaps with a people and entity that NEVER had sovereignty or a state on any of the land being considered to annex. Its like swapping with a third party that never owned the property in the first place. Israel is trying to establish a detrimental narrative that never existed…. that the current pals had some sort of prior state sovereignty interest in the west bank. Note that 242 never ascribed a land interest to the PLO… only named them as representing refugees. Jordan had the prior land interest which was only recognized by UK and Pakistan and they have relinquished their claim and agreed a final border with Israel at the river…. they did not agree any border with the PLO or PA.

    Its absurd to talk about swapping with those who owned nothing to swap in the first place. Real estate land ownership is not the same as state sovereignty. It appears to me that this swapping is designed to give the impression that the pals had some sort of legal land interest in the west bank as opposed to just 2 parties arguing over the land that Israel has not annexed. In a normal situation disputants would divide the area in dispute if there were no other factors such as the LON mandate rights to Jeiwsh settlement. Furthermore, how is it legal for the GOI to give land for Rawabi in C to become part of A or B without giving new land to Israel in C? It appears that the culprit is the state of israel who is trying so hard to lend credence to pal bogus claims, playing an absurd charade reminiscent of the “emperors new clothes”. I think it is about the GOI slowly accommodating the Israeli public to giving away YS…. every move they make points in that direction… it is only unsupported hopes and beliefs which demonstrate otherwise.

  3. Netanyahu denies EU claim he backs new peace push

    European Union foreign policy chief Mogherini says PM, Abbas agreed to new report on reinvigorating two-state process

    We will do this in coordination with the UN Security Council and with the main regional actors: Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia – on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative.”

    Mogherini added that the new initiative would be done “in strong coordination with the parties. This is why yesterday I called Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, who assured to me their willingness to engage in this new process.”

    While the labeling directive is not expected to change, Nahshon said Israel had received assurances that the move “is not a political step to determine future borders or to boycott Israel.”

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-denies-eu-claim-he-backs-new-peace-push/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=0a410d6d63-2016_02_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-0a410d6d63-54816837

  4. The Foreign Ministry reported that relations with the European Union are “close and friendly” again…

    It is like being trapped in a pit with rabid wolverines, but at the moment they are not tearing you limb from limb so you delude yourself into believing that everything’s cool.

    Don’t count on it remaining that way.

  5. EU backs down from product-labeling bid

    nO, nothing changed, each EU nation always had its own decision. this is a smoke and mirrors drama like when BB always stops tax remittance and then always gives it to them. Its designed to allow certain things to move forward on the other side, then appearing to make a dramatic struggle, then appearing to have won something, but hwen the smoke clears the other side got what they want with no real giving up of anything. Why, you may well ask? Its designed thus in order to make BB appear as if he isdoin something when in fact under the table the end of the drama is always known.
    Like the Iran BS,
    like the pal UNGA state BS,
    like the euro building illegally BS,
    like Israel building in YS BS,

    In November, Israel suspended contacts with EU officials on the political process with the Palestinians to protest the move.

    oooooh, only dummies belive this was real and meant anything at all, and now this is admittedly and overtly all over, but it never actually amounted to anything

    Under the new agreement, the EU said it will leave product-labeling decisions up to each individual member country.

    this was always the case

    Israel has said that it will continue to fight bids to label products in each country that intends to do so.

    this was always the case

    The EU also promised that it would not assist in labeling efforts and that it would oppose any boycott or isolation campaigns against Israel.

    this was always the case, why do the countries need their assistance, just filler BS to make it look like something.

    In response to the move, Nahshon said that Israel would no longer insist on the exclusion of EU bodies from peace talks with the Palestinians.The conversation resolved the tensions and we are, Israel and the EU, back to good and close relations,” Nahshon said in a message to the media.

    LoL, a con artist keeps repeating the same con MO until his sucker wakes up. If it keeps working he keeps fleecing his sucker.

    Notice how this most recent drama that never went anywhere in Israels favor has replaced public interest in muslim abuse of jews at Mount & Hebron, false incarceration of Jewish settlers, the Duma tale, the daily knifings and most relevant the illegal euro bldg to which I maintain that BB intentionally turned a blind eye over 7 years which indicates his covert agreement. He probably told them that he had to tear down a few of their structures to make it look like he was opposing them….. but he tore down a few tents and an outhouse for Fool Jews to coo about and cite that he is doing something.
    😛 😛 😛

  6. Israeli leaders have always refused to tell the truth about Israeli rights to the land. The Arab claim is totally false and should have been rejected in 1948. Israeli leaders are cowards and are under the delusion that amputating Judea and Samaria will lead to peace. The bitter and bloody lesson of the Gaza withdrawal does not even register in the demented mentalities of Israel’s corrupt leaders. Even a half wit could see that the Arabs need to be relocated elsewhere instead of left to fester inside the territories like an open wound.