The twenty -seven do not yet have in their hands the report commissioned by the High Representative for EU foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, analyzing whether Israel has breached, or rather to what extent he has done so, his commitments on respect for human rights and international law that mark the association agreement with the community block. Even so, for more than a hundred NGOs, unions and even Eurodiputados and European officials, the evidence of Israeli abuses in Gaza are “overwhelming.” In the Eurocamara this week has been talked about even openly, “genocide.” All claim that the Foreign Ministers that meet Monday in Brussels agree, at once, concrete and forceful measures against the Jewish State, including the total or partial suspension of the main instrument of political and commercial exchanges between the EU and Israel.
Article 2 of the Agreement establishes that the relations between the parties “will be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.” For a group of 113 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and unions such as the Spanish UGT or the French CGT, there are “overwhelming evidence of the atrocious crimes of Israel and other terrible abuses of human rights of the Palestinians throughout the occupied Palestinian territory (TPO).” Therefore, they affirm in a joint statement published on Thursday, “a credible review can only reach one conclusion: that Israel seriously breached article 2”. Consequently, they add, both the European Commission and the Member States should support, as of Monday, at once, against Israel, including the suspension of the association agreement, “at least in part.”
“On the part of Israel, and/or the fact that the Commission and the Council do not suspend at least part of the association agreement, it would end up destroying what remains of the credibility of the EU” warn the signatories, who remember that Brussels have been dragging their feet for more than a year, since Spain and Ireland have already requested the review now in progress in February 2024. In addition, they add, “they would add further to the Israeli authorities to continue with total impunity their atrocious crimes and other terrible violations against the Palestinians. ”
The joint statement of hundred NGO is not the only sample of impatience and before what is considered an incomprehensible and guilty inaction of the EU before the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza. This same week, doctors without borders (MSF) also published an open letter to the EU heads of state and the presidents of European institutions urging them to “act with decision and finally use the influence they have on Israel”, both political and economic and diplomatic, to stop an “intentional ethnic cleaning”, as their secretary general, Christopher Lockyear, denounced at a press conference.
Similarly, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) has written another letter to Kallas, the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Foreign Ministers urging them, before the “overwhelming” evidence of human rights violations and international law by Israel, to “prepare an immediate proposal for the total suspension of the agreement of the association of the association of the association of the association June ”. And at the beginning of the month, Europeans also claimed once again – they have been doing it regularly for more than a year – to the highest leaders of the EU blunt measures against the Government of Benjamín Netanyahu. They also recriminated the lack of before the “record macabre” and “war crimes” of Israel.
The situation in Gaza and the review of the Association Agreement have also held two debates during the Plenary of Strasbourg that concludes this Thursday, including one with the title “Stop the genocide in Gaza: it is time for the EU to impose sanctions.” If the proposal goes ahead, also during the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – Paneuropea Institution based equally in Strasbourg – from next week another debate will be held with the same background, “stop the genocide in Gaza.”
The head of European diplomacy has confirmed this week that foreign ministers will be able to analyze on Monday the report that her team has prepared, after, at the end of May, a large majority of states – 17 of 27 – agreed to review the agreement. The report, has indicated Kallas in several public appearances, both before journalists in Brussels and before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, is still in preparation. But according to several diplomatic sources, the states have been informed that they will receive the document from this Friday to be able to analyze it with time before the appointment of ministers on Monday.
Despite the growing pressure, once they receive the Kallas report. The high representative itself recognized this week before the MEPs that will be practically impossible to suspend the entire association agreement, since for this a unanimity is required that is far from being reached between the twenty -seven. Other countries suggest that the group of 17 countries that decided to review the agreement is not a monolithic block and that, within it, there are also divergent positions regarding how far to get in the measures against Israel.
In view of the fact that the heads of state and government of the EU will meet in Brussels at the end of next week, most likely, the sources coincide, it is expected to the fact that the European leaders give the mandate to the commission so that it presents acting options regarding Israel. Although this involves more delaying a decision that for civil society has been postponed for too long.
