Brussels, in response, stopped short of engaging directly with the criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not usually comment on comments,\u201d Paula Pinho, chief Commission spokesperson, told POLITICO on Monday.<\/p>\n
European External Action Service spokesperson Anouar El Anouni reiterated the bloc\u2019s standard position, saying the EU \u201ccalls for respect for international law, and this at all times and under all circumstances,\u201d while condemning \u201cviolations of human rights, killing of journalists, targeting of civilians, including civilian infrastructure\u201d wherever they occur.<\/p>\n
But not everyone in Brussels was so cautious, with the criticism quickly finding support among some members of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Vatican is voicing what much of the Global South feels: The EU does not stand for universal values. It stands for corporate interests,\u201d Belgian MEP Marc Botenga told POLITICO. \u201cEU foreign policy can be summed up as: Do as I say, not as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botenga, a member of the Left group in the European Parliament, questioned why the bloc had responded so forcefully to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine while, in his view, failing to take similar action over Israel\u2019s actions in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, or the war on Iran.<\/p>\n
Irish MEP and member of Sinn F\u00e9in Lynn Boylan likewise said Fern\u00e1ndez was \u201ccorrect to call out this double standard.\u201d She argued the EU had adopted 20 sanctions packages against Russia while allowing Israel to act \u201cwith impunity.\u201d She went on to point to Europe\u2019s continued arms exports to Israel, trade with Israeli settlements and the EU-Israel Association Agreement despite the country\u2019s actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot claim to champion human rights and international law if you selectively apply their core pillars,\u201d Boylan told POLITICO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brussels, in response, stopped short of engaging directly with the criticism. \u201cWe do not usually comment on comments,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,1584,2271,3126,14413,59671,11648,1111,4175,5096,238,4581,2048,240,241,76,27691,546],"class_list":["post-120481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-foreign-policy","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-marc-botenga","tag-meps","tag-military","tag-palestine","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-russia","tag-sanctions","tag-syria","tag-trade","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-vatican","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116846328982637724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}