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If Israel doesn’t “improve the situation” in Gaza, the EU will discuss “further measures” on how to suspend its association agreement with Tel Aviv at its next gathering in July, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters following a highly anticipated meeting with her EU counterparts in Brussels.
“Our first goal is to change the situation on the ground,” Kallas said. “If the situation does not improve, then we can discuss further measures and come back in July.”
Kallas spoke a few days after she presented to the ministers an eight-page review of the bloc’s EU-Israel association agreement, which stated that there were “indications” that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the agreement.
The EU’s foreign ministers were expected to respond to a list of violations which include the blockade of humanitarian assistance, military strikes against hospitals and forced displacement of the Palestinian population.
But the meeting also took place amid unprecedented tensions in the Middle-east, more than 24 hours after the US joined Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites and hit three key military sites in Iran.
Israel also blasted the EU-Israel Association Agreement review, saying “this report and its conclusions should not be taken seriously or used as a basis for any future actions or conversations”, in a letter from the country’s foreign ministry to the EU seen by Euronews.
Though diplomats argue that Iran and the war in Gaza are two separate issues, the US military intervention has added another degree of uncertainty among Europeans, who have been “scrambling to see how to react”, one diplomat said.
If Israel does not improve the situation in Gaza, it will be up to Kallas to explore “options” to suspend the association agreement.
Though a complete suspension of the agreement appears out of the question because there is no unanimity among member states, the diplomat said one option envisaged by ministers on Monday would be to partially suspend certain provisions related to free trade, research, technology in the EU-Israel association agreement.
The diplomat said Kallas would work with the European Commission, which is in charge of trade issues, to find options requiring a qualified majority, meaning at least 55% of countries representing at least 65% of the bloc’s population.
“The concrete question is what are we able to agree?” Kallas asked.
