At the close of the European Council on Thursday 1 February, the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, announced that the Member States had not agreed to the revision of the association agreement between the EU and Israel, a revision he has been calling for since December in view of the situation in Gaza.
“What you need is an assessment from the Commission as to whether the human rights clause is being breached, because one of the values on which the European Union is founded is human rights”, he explained.
Mr Varadkar pointed out that relations between the EU and Israel were based on an “agreement containing a human rights clause”. “A lot of us believe that Israel may be in breach of that. And that’s something we’re talking about”, the Prime Minister stressed. Article 2 of the association agreement concerns respect for human rights and democratic principles, and failure to comply with it could lead to the suspension of the agreement if the EU Council so decides unanimously.
The Prime Minister also announced that recognition of the State of Palestine was under discussion. “Another thing we’re talking about is the possibility of recognition that a number of EU states acting together to recognise Palestine could enable a more equal negotiation to happen after the war has ended in Gaza”, he added.
Nine Member States already recognise the State of Palestine (Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - at the time Czechoslovakia - Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Sweden). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)