On Wednesday 10 September, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would be proposing measures against Israel in view of the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity, this has to stop!”, she stressed in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament, saying that this was “part of a more systematic shift in the last months that is simply unacceptable”.
Our citizens “are asking how much worse things must get before there is unity of response (...) Because what is happening in Gaza is unacceptable. And because Europe must lead the way”, she added.
Ms von der Leyen therefore announced that the European Commission would suspend its bilateral support for Israel. “We will stop all payments in these areas - without affecting our work with Israeli civil society or Yad Vashem”, she added.
A Commission spokesperson explained that this was support covered by the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), under which Israel was to receive an average of €6 million a year between 2025 and 2027. Future annual allocations, apart from support for civil society and Yad Vashem, will be suspended.
“In addition, the EU will suspend around €14 million for ongoing projects. More specifically, this means that we will be suspending current institutional cooperation projects (twinning and TAIEX programmes) and that we will be assessing in greater detail the projects financed under the EU-Israel regional cooperation mechanism”, added the spokesperson added.
In addition, although the partial suspension of Israel’s participation in the Horizon Europe programme was not approved by a qualified majority of Member States in the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13690/2), the President of the Commission has announced that she will propose a partial suspension of the EU/Israel Association Agreement on trade issues - a proposal which will also require a qualified majority.
In addition, the EU institution will propose sanctions against extremist Israeli ministers and violent Israeli settlers, which will require the unanimous agreement of the Member States. A proposal to punish violent settlers has been on the table of the EU Council for months, without reaching a consensus. The Israeli ministers concerned could be Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who are already persona non grata in several Member States.
“I am aware that it will be difficult to find majorities. And I know that any action will be too much for some. Too little for others. But we must all take our own responsibilities”, warned the President.
Lastly, Ms von der Leyen pointed out that next month the Commission will set up the donors’ group for Palestine, including a specific instrument for the reconstruction of Gaza (see EUROPE 13690/4).
The left-wing groups in the European Parliament welcome the announcements, but consider them insufficient. In the debate that followed the speech, several political group leaders welcomed the measures announced, but called for more to be done.
“Ms von der Leyen was surprising. I did not expect her to take concrete measures”, admitted Saskia Bricmont (Green/EFA, Belgian), who said that the declaration was “a signal to the Netanyahu government that impunity is over”. And to regret: “Two years of inaction and 63,000 deaths. It was a long time before the President herself woke up to the situation on the ground”.
Spain’s Iratxe García Pérez, President of the S&D group, agreed, saying that the proposals “came too late and cost many lives”. She has called for the Association Agreement to be suspended in its entirety. “We need to launch the Gaza Facility. Because if Gaza dies, the soul of Europe dies. Stop the genocide!”, she concluded.
For the Greens/EFA group, Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout called for a ban on imports of products from Israeli settlements, pointing out that the credibility of the EU was at stake. “We need to put an end to the association agreement, the supply of arms, and (impose) sanctions against Netanyahu’s far-right ministers", added German Martin Schirdewan for The Left.
Link to Ms von der Leyen’s speech: https://aeur.eu/f/icl
To see her letter of intent: https://aeur.eu/f/icn
Now it’s the European Parliament’s turn to unveil its position. The European Parliament is due to vote on a resolution on the situation in Gaza this Thursday. In a joint draft resolution, the S&D, Greens/EFA and Renew Europe groups express their deep concern at the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation requiring the unimpeded and large-scale provision of humanitarian aid. The text also calls for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Stressing that Israel’s right to self-defence cannot justify indiscriminate military action in Gaza and the region, the three groups condemn the repeated violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law, and call on Israel to stop engaging in practices causing disproportionate civilian damage, destruction of infrastructure and forced displacement.
Furthermore, strongly condemning the fact that the Commission and the European Council have not yet reacted “with the urgency that the gravity of the catastrophic situation in Gaza demands”, the groups invite them to “reflect on the profound consequences for the EU’s global image of the absence of an objective response to the catastrophic situation in the Gaza Strip and the perception of a double standard in the EU’s diplomatic action”.
The three groups urge the Member States "to align with the Council Common Position on controls of arms exports and to consistently apply the principles laid down therein”, in other words to stop exporting arms to Israel.
Regretting that the Association Agreement remains in force and that no action has been taken despite the violation of obligations under Article 2 of the Agreement, the authors of the draft resolution support M’s von der Leyen’s announcement to suspend bilateral support to Israel and her proposal to suspend the trade part of the Association Agreement. The current rules on labelling products from Israeli settlements must be strictly applied and Israel’s participation in research programmes frozen or suspended, they add.
In addition, the three groups are also calling for sanctions to be imposed against ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, against extremist individuals and entities involved in the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and in serious violations of international law, and against Hamas.
Finally, the socialist, centre-right and green MEPs call on the Member States to consider recognising the State of Palestine with a view to achieving a two-state solution, reiterating in this respect the need for the release of all hostages and the absence of any role for Hamas in the future of Gaza.
To see the three political groups’ motion for a resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/ict (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Solenn Paulic)