LAST UPDATE | 15 Jul

EU FOREIGN MINISTERS failed to agree to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement at a meeting in Brussels today. 

They also failed to agree to any of the nine other options presented to them that would have taken action against Israel.

The bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas had put forward the ten potential steps after Israel was found to have breached a trade deal between the two sides on human rights grounds.

Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnès Callamard said the result of today’s meeting “will be remembered as one of the most disgraceful moments in the EU’s history”. 

“This is more than political cowardice. Every time the EU fails to act, the risk of complicity in Israel’s actions grows.

“This sends an extremely dangerous message to perpetrators of atrocity crimes that they will not only go unpunished but be rewarded.”

The ten measures ranged from suspending the entire accord or curbing trade ties to sanctioning Israeli ministers, imposing an arms embargo and halting visa-free travel.

None of them garnered sufficient support at today’s meeting. 

Despite growing anger over the devastation in Gaza, EU states remain divided over how to tackle Israel and diplomats say there appears to be no critical mass for any move.

“I was asked to give the inventory of the options that could be taken and it’s up to the member states to discuss what do we do with these options,” Kallas said on Monday.

Kallas said last week that she had struck a deal with her Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, to open more entry points and allow in more food.

This deal has been criticised by several Irish MEPs, who point to UN figures which say that more than more than 800 people in Gaza have been killed by the Israel Defence Forces while attempting to get aid since May alone. 

Gaza’s two million residents are facing dire humanitarian conditions as Israel has severely limited aid during its devastating war on the territory. 

“We see some good signs of more trucks getting in,” Kallas said on Monday.

“But of course we know that this is not enough and we need to push more (so) that the implementation of what we have agreed also happens on the ground.”

At a meeting of EU and neighbouring countries in Brussels on Monday, Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said the situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic”.

Israel’s Saar, speaking at the same meeting, had sounded confident his country would avoid further EU action.

“I’m sure not any of them will be adopted by the EU member states,” said the foreign minister. “There’s no justification whatsoever.”

Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in Palestine has killed more than 58,000 people since the Hamas-led attack on the country in October 2023. 

With reporting from AFP