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The European Union will temporarily halt its “bilateral support” to Israel and partially suspend the trade aspects of its association agreement with Tel Aviv, as announced by Ursula von der Leyen during her State of the Union address to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
In a strongly worded condemnation, von der Leyen labeled the situation in Gaza a “man-made famine” and a “clear attempt” by Israel to erode the viability of a two-state solution. She also acknowledged the EU’s inability to effectively address these actions as “painful”.
“The situation in Gaza is intolerable,” von der Leyen stated. “Europe must take a leadership role, as it has done in the past.”
The conflict in Gaza commenced after Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in approximately 1,200 fatalities, many of whom were civilians. Despite Hamas retaining 50 hostages, the subsequent Israeli retaliation has claimed over 64,000 Palestinian lives, predominantly women and children, as per the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s figures, which do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
To address the EU’s inaction on Gaza, von der Leyen proposed pausing “its bilateral support to Israel,” including suspension “of all payments” to the country, except for contributions toward the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center and other civil society initiatives. She also recommended temporarily halting trade-related components of the bloc’s association agreement with Israel.
An EU Commission spokesperson informed Euronews that future payments for several EU cooperation projects with Israel, averaging “six million euros” per year through the “Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI)” for the 2021 to 2027 period, would be withheld. Additionally, “fourteen million euros” allocated for “ongoing projects,” including institutional cooperation programs like TAIEX, aimed at providing “rapid support to public administrations in EU candidate countries and beyond,” would be frozen. The spokesperson added that the commission would also evaluate projects related to regional cooperation with Israel.
Earlier in the year, the EU agreed to reassess its primary partnership with Israel or the EU-Israel Association Agreement, established in 1995, in response to Israel’s ongoing activities in Gaza.
EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also proposed ten options for penalizing Israel, while the Commission recently recommended partially suspending Israel from the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program. However, achieving consensus has proven challenging due to the divisions within Europe, with many countries eager to maintain their ties with Israel. Suspending trade portions of the association agreement would require a qualified majority among the 27 member states, a stance Germany and Italy are hesitant to support.
Von der Leyen acknowledged the difficulty in finding a consensus. “I am aware it will be hard to secure majorities, but we must all take our responsibility.”
Furthermore, von der Leyen committed to imposing sanctions on Israel’s “extremist ministers” and the country’s “violent settlers”. Sweden and The Netherlands, among other European countries, have already sanctioned Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, two Israeli ministers notorious for inciting violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The Council asserts that Europe has established sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for “serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.” However, numerous officials and NGOs advocate for the EU to take more action, particularly after Israel agreed to proceed with its contentious E1 settlement project in the West Bank.