ADVERTISEMENTThe European Union will examine its vast trade and cooperation agreement with Israel for its extended offensive in Gaza and its inability to fully raise a two -month aid blockade.
The decision occurred Tuesday after 17 of the 27 foreign ministers of the Bloc supported this decision, tabled earlier this month by the Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.
This means that the EU executive will now launch an examination to determine whether Israel has violated its human rights obligations under article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a large pact that defines trade and diplomatic relations between the two parties.
“It clearly appears from today’s discussions that there is a large majority in favor of an examination of article 2 of our association agreement with Israel,” Kaja Kallas, the high representative of the EU, Kaja Kallas.
“We will launch this review and in the meantime, it is up to Israel to publish more humanitarian aid.”
Article 2 declares that relations “are based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this agreement”.
Israel responded to Kallas’s announcement on Tuesday. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oren Marmorstein, published a statement on the social media platform X, detailing their rejection of the premise of the EU decision to review his links with Israel.
Marmorstein stressed that Israel is in a defensive position in a war “which was forced from Israel by Hamas”. He also sought to remind the EU that the Israeli government had accepted many American proposals to cease-fire and hostage exchange-refused by Hamas.
“Ignoring these realities and criticizing Israel only hardening the position of Hamas and encouraging Hamas to stick to its arms.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also criticized the EU for ignoring recent American and Israeli initiatives to allow the flow of aid in the enclave, while praising other countries that recognize “this reality” and maintained their support for Israel.
Marmorstein also said that Israel remains open to discussion with EU representatives and its Member States to resolve the problem, and ended the Declaration by ordering Brussels to exert pressure “where it belongs – on Hamas”.
The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, the commercial relationship worth more than 45 billion euros per year.
Ireland and Spain have deposited for the first time the prospect of reopening the agreement of the association in a letter still unknown to the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen 15 months agoBut failed to guarantee the support of the company from any other EU country.
But the move has taken a new momentum in recent weeks when the Netherlands, considered as a firmly ally of Israel, have declared that the “humanitarian blocking” of Israel in Gaza, where a limited quantity of critical supplies has come for the first time in addition to eleven weeks on Monday, is in “violation of international humanitarian” and therefore of article 2.
Nine Member States – Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden – had publicly supported the Netherlands proposal before the Rally of Foreign Ministers on Tuesday.
Denmark, Estonia, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia also supported the journal on Tuesday, according to diplomatic sources. Austria, a fervent supporter of Israel, did not speak to express an opposition, said another diplomat.
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Lithuania would have been against, while Latvia was “neutral”, also said the sources.
Another proposal to strengthen pressure on Israel by introducing new sanctions against Israeli settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank was supported by 26 of the 27 Member States but opposed its veto by Hungary.
The Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer, Sternergard, had suggested that she would go further and “push the EU sanctions against individual Israeli ministers”.
Earlier Tuesday, the United Kingdom suspended Commercial discussions and summoned the Israeli ambassador on what he described as the “intolerable” offensive in Gaza. He came after the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada threatened “concrete actions” if Israel has not stopped his campaign and helps restrictions on the rise.
The EU position on the War of Israel-Hamas in Gaza, launched by Hamas’ attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, has always been deeply divided.
The former representative of the EU High Josep Borrell personally deposited the prospect of suspending links with Israel in November, which finally led to the concession of a closed -door meeting between the Israeli Foreign Affairs and his EU counterparts.
During this meeting, chaired by the successor of Borrell Kaja Kallas, the calls for the revision of article 2 were completely silent As a ceasefire was in effect in Gaza.
The blockade of eleven weeks on the entrance to the aid seems to have triggered a change in reflection among the 27.
The first diplomat Kaja Kallas said that although Israel’s decision to allow a limited number of trucks to enter the enclave is “welcome”, it was a “drop in the ocean”.
“Aid must circulate immediately and on a large scale,” said Kallas.
