‘’The EU doesn’t support in any form a boycott or sanctions against Israel,’’ European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters at the daily Commission briefing on Wednesday after the 28-member EU executive arm approved an ‘’interpretative notice’’ providing guidelines for the labeling of Israeli settlements products entering the EU market.

The so-called ‘’Interpretative Notice on indication of origin of good from the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967’’ will be published on Thursday in the EU official journal.

‘’This is a technical issue not a political stance,’’ Dombrovskis stressed, adding that the notice is not a new legislation but rather a clarification’’ of certain elements linked to the interpretation of implementation of the EU legislation on indication of origin of products entering the EU internal market. ‘’This indication of origin of products entering the EU internal market is an essential part of the EU consumer policy.

‘’While the implementation of these rules is in the hands of enforcement authorities, the Commission is providing guidance to the EU member states and economic operators to insure the uniform application of these rules concerning indication of origin of Israeli settlement products,’’ the Commissioner said.

He mentioned that the clarfication was requested from the Commission by EU member states themselves.

‘’The EU has a priviliged relations with Israel based on the Association Agreement. Under this agreement products originating in Israel within its internationally recognized borders benefit from preferential tariff treatment upon their entry into the EU. This situation is not changing. The EU doesn’t support in any form a boycott or sanctions against Israel,’’ Dombrovskis concluded.

The EU considers the settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as ‘’illegal under international law.’’

‘’The occupied territory, is not part of the sovereign state of Israel, so goods cannot be sold as ‘Made in Israel’, one EU official said.

The new guidelines mention that the label on will need to bear the words ‘’Made in settlements when products are exported to the EU market.

Israel considers the measure as ‘’discriminatory’’ and tantamount to a boycott of Israel.

‘’This is clearly discrimination against the Jewish State because EU boycotts do not apply to Moroccon-controlled Western Sahara, Turkish occupied northern Cyprus or China controlled Tibet,’’ one official said.

The EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen was summoned Wednesday to the foreign ministry in Jerusalem to be reprimanded over the decision.

Israel’s ambassador to the EU, David Walzer, warned just before the announcement of the labeling measure that it could make difficult peace taglks between Israel and the Palestinians and that the EU might no longer be a welcome broker between the two sides as it wished to be.

‘’We made it very clear that we welcome EU contributions to the peace process. This might force us to reconsider that’’.

The EU decision is likely to affect relations between Israel and the EU despite the fact that bilateral cooperation in various sectors such as economy, technology, culture, science, research is very intense.