Sunday, December 27, 2015
Elder of ZiyonI have a few short questions regarding the labeling of products from non EU countries.
1 .Are products from Tibet, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kashmir, the Western Sahara or Northern Cyprus being sold within the EU?
2. If so, are the products ladled in a manner allowing the consumer to recognize that they are not from China, Armenia and so on but from occupied and/or disputed territories?
3. If not, why is there no clear designation of origin for such products?
4. Are you for or against a clear designation of origin for products from the occupied/disputed territories listed under 1.?
Here is what he wrote:
Dear Mr …Essentially, the answer is that Israel is different in some unspecified manner and therefore only Israel must be singled out for special labeling requirements. It is too complex to explain in a simple email, but trust us, there are big differences.
Our research in the EU Parliament came up with the following:
Due to the differences between the countries you mentioned, they are not suitable as a uniform example for a designation of origin of products from occupied territories. Each of the cases is quite specific. The EU pays attention to comply with international law in each case.
There are no guidelines for designation of origin for the regions you named. Just last week the European Court of Justice ruled that the agriculture and fisheries accords with Morocco cannot be applied to the Western Sahara. The EU always pays attention to the UN position that the benefits of such accords need to be distributed and applied justly.
The S&D faction (SPD deputies-the Socialist Group in the European Parliament) of which Dr Köster is a member favors a binding and enforceable product and resource identification and traceability. This also applies to all third countries in the same manner and thus to the occupied territories too.
I hope that this email helps contribute to the clarification of this difficult issue.
