The European Commission is facing fresh legal scrutiny after a group of leading scholars questioned its options paper on restricting imports from illegal Israeli settlements, before EU foreign ministers revisit the issue in September.
In a letter to the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, dated 31 July, the scholars argue that the options paper contains “manifestly incorrect and misleading claims” that risk undermining the EU’s obligations under international law.
“We cannot avoid the impression that the analysis was shaped to justify inaction, rather than providing an objective assessment,” said the signatories.
Legal scholars criticised the commission’s assumption that the EU’s existing differentiation regime between Israeli exports and settler goods “is in line with the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion” as being “factually untenable.”
The ICJ found that all states are under the obligation “to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
