WE WON! EU bosses must debate banning trade with Israeli settlements!
We have some incredible news for you – we have forced the European Commission to discuss banning trade with Israel’s illegal settlements!
In February our European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to ban EU trade with illegal settlements ended, without the campaign reaching the threshold of one million verified signatures. However, this was only Stage 1: once the ECI closed, our international coalition moved to have the EU Parliament’s Petition Committee (PETI) turn the ECI into an official petition to the European Commission, thereby compelling the EC to respond even without the million signatures.
Today the PETI Committee voted unanimously to do so – so now the European Commission is forced to discuss and, crucially, respond to the ECI/Petition, which was our ultimate goal all along.
OUR ECI WAS A SUCCESS – and this victory is huge news!
Of course without the more than a quarter of a million signatories, the endorsement of so many civil society groups, and political support from various quarters, our ECI would never have even been on the PETI Committee’s radar, nevermind turned into an official petition. Now is also a good time to reflect on the fact that Ireland punched well above our weight and brought in just under 5% of all signatures – from just 1% of the EU population!
Of course, it’s possible that the Commission’s response will not be a positive one; however even forcing the issue this far is opening up more cracks – and a legal response from the EC will allow our legal experts to try to find further fissures, and keep pushing the debate forward.
Remember that the Commission refused to even register our ECI and we had to take them to court to force them to do so. There’s no doubt that this is a topic they don’t even want to think about – and together we’ve forced it right onto their agenda!
Good news should be celebrated, so huge congratulations to all our Irish coalition members who helped push the ECI from initially being rejected by the EC, to our successful legal action, to our Irish campaign launch and massive banner drop, to the year-long slog of collecting signatures, right up to this point!
And of course, thank you all for signing, sharing and promoting our ECI. Without your help, we would never have made it this far.
Of course, this is only another step in the process – and we would ask you, if you can afford it, to make a donation to help us keep our campaigning work going. We have no state or institutional funding; we rely solely on supporters’ generosity – so every euro is greatly appreciated, thank you so much!
