So, the EL (those ${} things) doesn't get executed? That can happen when your servletcontainer runs at Servlet 2.3 / JSP 1.2 modus or lower, while you're using JSTL 1.1 or newer. During the change from JSTL 1.0 to 1.1, EL was moved from JSTL into JSP. That was JSP 2.0, which is part of Servlet 2.4. JSP 1.2 and older doesn't have EL bundled. JSTL 1.1 and newer doesn't have EL bundled.
You need to make sure that your web.xml root declaration conforms at least Servlet 2.4. As you're using JSP 2.1, which is part of Servlet 2.5, you're apparently targeting a Servlet 2.5 compatible container. So, make sure that your web.xml root declaration conforms Servlet 2.5:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
version="2.5">
<!-- Config here. -->
</web-app>
Tomcat 7 is however a Servlet 3.0 compatible container. I'd consider changing maven pom to declare Servlet 3.0 / JSP 2.2 so that you can benefit all the new Servlet 3.0 features.
See also:
- Our JSTL wiki page
- History of EL
