The foreign ministers of the EU Member States still failed to reach agreement on Monday 15 June on joint sanctions against the extremist Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, or on measures against products from Israeli settlements.
“As regards trade with illegal settlements, many Member States have asked the Commission to put forward proposals,” explained the EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, after the EU Council meeting. She announced that she would pass on the ministers’ request “and ask the Commission, before the next Foreign Affairs Council, to draw up a list of options for possible trade measures, including those aimed at preventing imports of goods originating in illegal settlements”. She specified that the ministers also wanted the Commission’s opinion on the scope of issues relating to rules of origin.
According to a European source, some 10 Member States requested a Commission proposal, and seven or eight others would be ready to consider such a proposal if it were tabled.
On his arrival at the EU Council, the French minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, had asked the Commission “to do everything possible to prevent the import into Europe of products from illegal settlements in the West Bank, in the same way as it managed to do to prevent products imported from Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia”. “We cannot accept that Europe should, directly or indirectly, through its trade, support these illegal activities which compromise the possibility of peace between Israel and Palestine”, he explained.
The Spanish minister, José Manuel Albares, once again noted that “the European Union simply needs to comply with international law and the opinions of the International Court of Justice”.
Unsurprisingly, the EU High Representative also announced that no consensus had been found among the ministers on sanctioning Itamar Ben Gvir.
Before the EU Council, while acknowledging that unanimity would be difficult, the Swedish minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, had said there was “some movement” among the Member States. Thus Austria, known as a country allied with Israel, is in favour of measures against Mr Ben Gvir. “His behaviour, particularly towards the Austrians who were part of the flotilla that sailed towards Israel and Gaza, is unacceptable. He is not welcome here”, warned the Austrian minister, Beate Meinl-Reisinger.
Despite the lack of unity among the Member States, at the end of the week the European Council is expected to invite the Council of the EU “to continue work on restrictive measures against the extremist ministers who incite and encourage human rights violations”, according to a draft conclusions document dated 12 June.
See the draft: https://aeur.eu/f/mc7 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)