In a letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other top EU officials whose contents were disclosed in Haaretz newspaper, Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign affairs representative, wrote on July 8 that the commission must now formulate guidelines so that it can begin the labelling.
The settlements contravene the Fourth Geneva Convention's ban on an occupying power moving its nationals into occupied territory but are seen by right-wing Israelis as an expression of historic Jewish rights to the biblically resonant areas of Judea and Samaria. About half a million Israelis have moved to the West Bank, which Palestinians view as the heartland of their future state, since its capture during the 1967 war.
News of the EU move, coming a week after a landmark EU directive prohibiting funding or investments to entities that operate in the settlements, ratchets up a burgeoning EU challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which had previously been able to pursue pro-settlement policies without significant diplomatic or economic cost.
"The guidelines could be adopted as a non-binding Commission Notice and published in the Official Journal of the EU before the end of 2013," Baroness Ashton wrote. "I hereby call for your commitment toward ensuring the effective implementation of existing EU legislation relevant for the correct labelling of settlement products by adopting EU guidelines and other implementing acts where necessary."
In her letter, Baroness Ashton took note of an EU legal review in January which called for implementing a non-binding code of conduct on all settlement products. Cosmetics and agricultural produce from settlements would be required to have labels, according to the review.