Von der Leyen: EU Commission stops payments to Israel
Strasbourg (dpa) – Due to Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, the EU Commission is suspending its support for the country. All corresponding payments will be stopped, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. However, there should be no impact on work with Israeli civil society or the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem.
According to a Commission spokesperson, it had originally been planned to provide an average of six million euros per year from an EU fund for international cooperation until the end of 2027. These funds will no longer flow with the restrictions mentioned by the Commission President. Additionally, 14 million euros for ongoing projects will also be frozen, it was stated. Israel criticized that the EU Commission’s decision is partly based on the propaganda of the Islamist Hamas.
Further sanctions in the works
Von der Leyen also announced that she would present proposals for sanctions against extremist ministers and violent settlers to the member states. She also wants to recommend that member states suspend trade agreements included in a partnership agreement.
“I am aware that it will be difficult to find majorities for this,” said von der Leyen in her first speech on the state of the EU in her second term. For some states, each of these measures goes too far, and for others, not far enough. “But we all must fulfill our responsibility – Parliament, Council, and Commission.”
The conservative German MEP Hildegard Bentele expressed being “shocked by the one-sidedness” of the plans of her party colleague von der Leyen. “No clear demand on Hamas except for a half-hearted ‘release the hostages’, no word on progress in humanitarian aid, and the association agreement is sacrificed – without a plan for future dialogue with Israel,” criticized the chairwoman of the EU-Israel delegation in the European Parliament. This is devastating for EU-Israel relations.
Israel: “This is not acceptable behavior between partners”
Criticism also came from Israel. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that the EU Commission President is yielding to the pressure of forces that want to undermine the relations between Israel and Europe. This also contradicts the interests of the European countries themselves. The EU Commission is strengthening Hamas with its decision, which is responsible for the war in the Gaza Strip, Saar continued. “And above all: This is not acceptable behavior between partners.”
EU countries divided in dealing with Israel
The EU is deeply divided in its dealings with Israel. The member countries have so far been unable to agree on proposed measures from the Brussels authority. At the end of July, the Commission had proposed to suspend cooperation under the Horizon Europe research funding program. This is intended to increase pressure on the country to enable better humanitarian assistance for the people in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, where Israel is fighting the Islamist Hamas. Israeli companies could lose access to millions in grants due to the sanctions.
The justification states that Israel is violating human rights and humanitarian international law with its actions in the Gaza Strip and the resulting humanitarian catastrophe. This violates a fundamental principle of cooperation between the EU and Israel under the current association agreement.
Berlin does not want to agree to EU-Israel sanctions
Among others, Germany is opposed and does not want to agree to the sanctions. Other countries, such as Spain, expressed clear incomprehension over the rejection of the Commission’s proposal. Whether the EU Commission’s sanctions proposal can be implemented depends on whether it receives the support of a so-called qualified majority in the Council of Member States.
Specifically, 15 of the 27 EU countries must agree, representing at least 65 percent of the population of the participating member states. Recently, only the support of Germany or Italy was missing. All other major EU countries and many smaller ones are in favor of the sanctions. (September 10)
