The European Union has condemned the announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to legalize five outposts in the occupied West Bank as “another deliberate attempt at undermining peace efforts”.

In a statement, an EU spokesperson noted that the bloc’s leaders at a meeting this week had condemned the Israeli cabinet’s decisions to further expand illegal settlements and urged it to reverse them.

“In line with its longstanding common position and UN Security Council Resolutions, the EU will not recognize changes to the 1967 borders unless agreed by the parties,” it said.

The EU said that steps taken by Israel to weaken the Palestinian Authority (PA) must stop and urged it to release withheld tax and customs revenues owed to the PA “and to take the necessary measures to ensure that correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain in place”.