The European Commission floated the possibility of withdrawing or amending its proposal to partially suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement and sanction two ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The measures were “proposed in a given context, and if the context changes, that could eventually lead to a change of the proposal,” Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said Monday, adding that the goal of the measures was to bring about a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
A ceasefire began in Gaza on Friday as part of the “first phase” of a peace deal agreed by Israel and Hamas.
In September, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to restrict trade with Israel and sanction “extremist ministers” in Netanyahu’s cabinet. Brussels also suspended EU funding that supports cooperation with Israel, worth a total of around €14 million, and floated freezing participation in parts of the Horizon Europe research program.
“We are very, very pleased, as everybody across the world is, to see that we now have a ceasefire, and we want to really see this peace implemented,” the spokesperson said, but cautioned that when it comes to changing planned measures, “we are not there yet.”
Ball in EU ministers’ court
The Commission said it will now assess whether there is a need to revise its proposals based on how the next stage of the peace process unfolds, and the topic will be raised at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on Oct. 20.
Asked by POLITICO, another Commission spokesperson said that “the ball is now in the [foreign ministers’] court,” and the EU executive will wait until after that discussion before taking any further action on the package.
Although the Commission can technically withdraw its own proposal, two EU spokespersons told POLITICO that doing so may now be politically difficult, as the measures were adopted in a formal College meeting and publicly announced by von der Leyen during her State of the Union address — making a unilateral reversal unlikely without first consulting EU ministers.
Speaking to POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook, Israel’s newly appointed ambassador to the EU, Avi Nir-Feldklein, said that for a reset of EU–Israel relations, the EU should restore funding for cooperation with Israeli institutions that von der Leyen had suspended, in addition to reconsidering the proposed restrictions on joint projects.
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