All of Ireland’s 14 MEPs have signed a European Parliament-wide open letter to Ursula von der Leyen calling on her to introduce new EU laws banning any trade between Europe and illegal Israeli settlements.
The letter, which has been signed by more than 100 of the European Parliament’s 720 MEPs, was published a day before the European Commission president’s state of the union address tomorrow and is targeted at placing pressure on her to take action.
In the letter, MEPs say in their view it is time to “finally bring forward a legislative proposals to ban EU trade with Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied territories”.
Referencing British foreign minister Ed Miliband’s decision last week to support a similar move, the letter continued: “Our citizens demand action. While our credibility on the international stage has already been damaged through inaction, a legislative proposals will be a positive step in the right direction.
“We therefore urge the European Commission to propose the necessary regulation.”
The open letter follows similar correspondence in July by 71 MEPs, and a separate call in June by 460 former member state prime ministers, European commissioners, government ministers, ambassadors, MEPs and senior EU officials for tougher action by EU in response to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank.
That June group included, among others, former taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar, former tánaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox.