The EU remains split on imposing sanctions on Israel, despite some member states criticising the country over the plight of Gaza and violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief, said proposals for a part suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement remained on the table but required states to shift their positions to come into force. Speaking after a meeting between EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, she told reporters: “We didn’t see that today, but these discussions will continue.”
Kallas rejected criticism that the bloc’s approach to Israel suggested a double standard, a charge levelled by some EU insiders, while raising doubts about the impact of sanctions. “A suspension of the association agreement, will it stop the expansion [by Israeli settlers] on the West Bank? You know this is probably also not true.”
Separately she said the EU would add to wide-ranging restrictions on Iran by adopting new sanctions on Iranians involved in limiting free navigation through the strait of Hormuz. The EU would aim to adopt the sanctions in May, she said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia pressed Kallas to reopen a part suspension of Israel’s association agreement with the EU, which was proposed last autumn but never secured majority support.
The three countries, historically defenders of Palestinian rights, wrote to Kallas last week, describing the “unbearable” conditions in Gaza with continuous violations of the ceasefire and insufficient entry of humanitarian aid, as well as escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said on Tuesday: “While Israel continues in that path of a permanent perpetual war, we will not be able to [run our relations] in the same way.”
Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister – who has been among the most vocal European critics of Israel’s war in Gaza – called on the EU last weekend to end its association agreement with Israel.
Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s foreign minister, said: “It was clear that we need to raise our voices on sanctions,” referring to violence by West Bank settlers reaching “unprecedented levels” as well as the Israeli parliament’s vote for the death penalty. “There are clearly serious attacks on the principles of the rights and values of the EU that govern this agreement,” he said, referring to article 2 of the EU-Israel pact.
Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian vice-chair of the European parliament who speaks for the Socialists on trade, said the EU was eroding its credibility as a human rights defender. “The failure by both the European Commission and the EU member states to act appropriately according to international law, human rights and its own values and beliefs is making Europe complicit in the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel,” she said.
Germany said the proposal to suspend the agreement was inappropriate. Johann Wadephul, the foreign minister, said: “We have to talk with Israel about the critical issues. That has to be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel.”
The association agreement needs unanimous approval by the EU’s 27 member states to be revoked, but a partial suspension requires only a weighted majority of 15 member states representing 65% of the EU population. Either Germany or Italy would be required to change their position, assuming support from last autumn remains constant.
In stinging criticism, Amnesty International accused the EU of “a moral failure” that showed “brazen contempt for civilian lives, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Lebanon”.
The NGO was among 70 groups that called for a suspension of the EU-Israel agreement last week. In separate initiatives, more than 1 million people and nearly 400 senior EU diplomats and officials have made that same demand to EU leaders.
Upping pressure from another direction, France and Sweden urged the European Commission to “urgently consider” imposing tariffs on products from illegal settlements in the West Bank and restrictions on exports to these territories. Kallas said she would raise that proposal with the European commissioner for trade.
The commission, which is responsible for EU trade policy, has previously said goods originating from Israeli settlements that came under Israeli administration after June 1967 are not entitled to preferential treatment. “Only products originating in Israel proper are granted trade preferences under the EU-Israel association agreement,” a spokesperson said in March.
Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s foreign minister, said one of the main problems facing the Palestinian Authority was the encroachment on Palestine by violent settlers, “at times tolerated by, even supported by the Israeli government and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”.
Norway, which is not an EU member, has played a historic role in attempting to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It was among the first governments to recognise Palestinian statehood in the latest wave of support.
The minister also called on Israel to release Palestinian “clearance revenues”, taxes and customs duties, which are the Palestinian Authority’s main source of revenue but are collected by Israel under the Oslo accords brokered by Norway. Transfer of the revenues has been suspended by Israel since May 2025, creating problems for the authority in paying teachers, doctors, rubbish collectors and police officers. “This is not asking Israel to do something extra. It’s just to do something that they’re already legally obliged to do. This is our number one ask and it should happen immediately,” the minister said.
He declined to comment on what the EU should do, but said: “I do think that it’s important that it’s being made very clear to Israel that we expect that they abide by international law and it is now well established that the occupation in its totality is illegal,” referencing the 2024 opinion of the UN’s international court of justice.
The Israeli government has hit back at its EU critics, most notably accusing Sánchez of hypocrisy and double standards. Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, said the Spanish government had received thanks “from Iran’s brutal regime and terrorist organisation”, adding that it had “dedicated itself to spreading antisemitism”. He posted the statement on X, alongside a photograph that apparently showed a poster of Sánchez’s face and his criticisms of Israel’s war on Iran on an Iranian missile.
Additional reporting by Sam Jones in Madrid
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