As EU Council President Donald Tusk starts Tuesday a two-day visit to Israel, Jerusalem voiced strong opposition during a high-level diplomatic meeting with the EU over its plans to label goods produced beyond the Green Line, a step which is viewed as ‘’very grave’’, Israeli diplomatic officials quoted by The Jerusalem Post said.

Over the weekend, at an informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luembourg, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU was close to finalizing guidelines for labeling products coming from Israeli settlements.

"The work of the committee dealing with the issue is coming to a close - these are the last steps before we submit the conclusions," she told reporters after the meeting.

Israel, according to diplomatic officials, charged that labeling products from the settlements discriminated unfairly against Israel, since the EU does not have a similar policy toward other disputed areas around the world, including northern Cyprus or the western Sahara.

Also, Israel argued, this would be a “slippery slope” leading to discriminatory steps against Israeli products, and eventual boycott. There is only a “short distance” from settlement labeling to boycotts, the officials argued.

Luxembroug's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn whose country currenty holds the six-monthly EU presidency of Council of Minusters, stressed that "we are not talking about an attempt to boycott Israel," claiming the move was instead intended to "provide information to the consumer to choose for himself if he is interested in buying produce from the settlements."

Israeli officials said that the new guidelines will not likely be issued until October, after the Jewish High Holidays, and that much of the discussion about them is speculative since nothing yet has been written down.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said Monday’s meeting was part of routine meetings between Jerusalem and Brussels, “and is a good occasion for a general survey of ongoing issues, both on the bilateral level, and also regarding regional issues.”

The Israeli team to this annual informal strategic dialogue with the EU was led by the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for political affairs, Alon Ushpiz, and the EU team was headed by Helga Schmid, the deputy director-general of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic arm.

Though Schmid was one of the top European negotiators with Iran over the nuclear deal, that issue took a back seat in Monday’s talks to other bilateral and regional ones, such as the Palestinians’ diplomatic track and the refugee crisis facing Europe.

During his visit in Jerusalem, EU Council President Donald Tusk is to meet Tuesday afternoon with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin and later with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a working dinner. On Wednesday, he will visit the Holocaust History Museum Yad Vashem.

Tusk’s visit will coincide with a debate on the Middle East Peace Process on Wednesday in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg which will follow a statement by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on the EU's role on this issue. A vote of a resolution on this topic is scheduled to take place the next day.

In July, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades hinted the possibility of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing EU leaders in Brussels for the first time as part of a new push by the international community to restart the peace process.

He raised the idea during a visit of Netanyahu in Nicosia. The Israeli Prime Minister called the idea to address the EU Council (the meeting of all 28 EU leaders) ‘’a very good idea’’ and then said he would ‘’continue to discuss’’ this idea with EU Council President Donald Tusk during his visit in Jerusalem.