{"id":3198,"date":"2024-03-13T17:40:28","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T16:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.elsc.support\/?post_type=case&p=3198"},"modified":"2024-03-14T11:10:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T10:10:37","slug":"accountability-for-eu-complicity-with-israeli-illegal-settlements-a-new-legal-victory-highlights-the-eu-commissions-shortcomings","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/elsc.support\/nl\/case\/accountability-for-eu-complicity-with-israeli-illegal-settlements-a-new-legal-victory-highlights-the-eu-commissions-shortcomings\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability for EU Complicity with Israeli Illegal Settlements: A New Legal Victory Highlights the EU Commission\u2019s Shortcomings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After discovering that the European Commission (EC) was violating its own rules around funding projects involving Israeli entities, an activist with ICAHD Finland, with the support of the ELSC, recently got the EU Ombudsman to issue an important decision which confirms that any entity established in the Israeli illegal settlements in the OPT should be excluded from EU cooperation projects. It highlights the failure of the EC in making sure that those responsible for violating these principles are properly held accountable. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2014, the European Commission (EC) published important guidelines specifying that EU funding cannot be awarded to entities established in Israeli illegal settlements in the OPT<\/strong> (Occupied Palestinian Territory), in line with international humanitarian law and the legal obligation for the EU and its Member States not to facilitate the commission of war crimes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April<\/a> and May<\/a> 2021, Syksy R\u00e4s\u00e4nen, chair of ICAHD Finland, publicly wrote about the involvement of Ariel University<\/strong>, an Israeli institution located in the illegal settlement of Ariel, in the medical project BOUNCE funded by the EU\u2019s Horizon 2020 program<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the publication of the article<\/a>, he had expressed these concerns to the European Commission. The EU project coordinator claimed that Ariel university staff were only involved before the start of the project. This claim is false<\/strong>, as shown by many pieces of evidence, including a research paper published with Ariel University as part of the BOUNCE project. The project coordinator tried to hide the evidence by scrubbing all the references to Ariel University from the project webpage and revising old documents<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2021, the EC informed R\u00e4s\u00e4nen that the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) was managing the project on the Commission\u2019s behalf and that the project coordinator was \u201ccarrying out the appropriate monitoring of the project execution to verify the allegations<\/em>\u201d. It turned out that the monitoring consisted only of asking the project coordinator about the claims that she had already given false information about<\/strong>. Eventually, there was an external investigation that claimed to find no misconduct, which however was not made public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

R\u00e4s\u00e4nen questioned the EC, but the correspondence lasted for over a year without clear answers. Therefore, R\u00e4s\u00e4nen filed a freedom of information request to access all the Commission\u2019s documents concerning the BOUNCE project. However, HaDEA shared only one document, which was essentially entirely redacted, invoking the protection of commercial interests and personal data. It also failed to locate requested documents that are known to exist, including previous emails on the topic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

R\u00e4s\u00e4nen<\/strong> remained undeterred and, with the help of the ELSC legal team, filed a complaint to the EU Ombudsman<\/strong> at the end of 2022, claiming that the conduct of the Commission and its staff amounted to maladministration<\/strong>, specifically in relation to the incomplete and unclear information provided and the unreasonable amount of time taken to answer to the queries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU Ombudsman opened an inquiry, and on 20 July 2023, issued a landmark decision<\/strong>, confirming that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n