{"id":263342,"date":"2025-07-14T04:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T04:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/263342\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T04:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T04:41:10","slug":"eu-member-states-hesitant-on-kallas-10-options-for-action-against-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/263342\/","title":{"rendered":"EU member states hesitant on Kallas’ 10 options for action against Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By&nbspMaia de la Baume and Shona Murray<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Published on
\n 14\/07\/2025 – 6:30 GMT+2<\/p>\n

\"\"ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s top diplomat Kaja Kallas is set to offer an exhaustive list of 10 possibilities for the EU to respond to Israel’s action in Gaza during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels this week, but EU diplomats told Euronews there’s little appetite across the EU to take any action against Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

Kallas’ 10 options include suspending visa free travel and blocking imports from the Jewish settlements in\u00a0response to Israel\u2019s breach of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, according to a document issued by Kallas\u2019s office seen by Euronews.<\/p>\n

The proposals, which are listed with their legal basis and the procedure required to adopt them, include suspending the entire EU-Israel Association Agreement, halting political dialogue with Israel, or barring Tel Aviv access to EU programs, all of which require unanimous support from the EU’s 27\u00a0member states.<\/p>\n

But the document also lists other options including \u201csuspension of trade preferences\u201d with Israel and a halt of the EU-Israel Aviation agreement, which would require a qualified majority vote, meaning 55% of member states\u00a0representing at least 65% of the total EU population.<\/p>\n

The document is the result of Kallas\u2019s efforts to follow up on a review of the human rights clause of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which found that Israel is\u00a0in breach of the\u00a0agreement due to violations in Gaza and the West Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kallas was originally preparing to offer ministers with five options<\/strong><\/a>, but the EU\u2019s top diplomat has decided to double down on the list and \u201cinclude measures that member states can opt for unilaterally without needing a Commission proposal\u201d, according to one EU diplomat.<\/p>\n

Diplomats told Euronews that member states are unlikely to choose to back any of the options for action for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n

First, some countries insist the EU should it should wait to see the result of an agreement brokered by Kallas last week<\/strong><\/a> attempting to imrpove the flow of aid to Gaza. The EU announced on Thursday that it had negotiated a “significant” improvement of humanitarian aid access into Gaza, including an increase of food trucks, and an agreement to “protect the lives of aid workers\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Kallas spokesperson told reporters on Friday that as a result of the agreement, Israel had opened the Zikim border crossing, allowed entry of fuel and repair water pipes, \u201ctogether with the reopening of the Jordanian route\u201d.<\/p>\n

Countries waiting to see results of new humanitarian agreement<\/p>\n

Secondly, the EU is still far too divided on the issue, and many countries – including the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Italy – are unwilling to sanction Israel if the situation\u00a0on the ground improves, opposing the idea\u00a0of suspending the\u00a0EU-Israel Association Agreement\u00a0in part or full.<\/p>\n

Ireland and Spain remain eager to take action against Israel, with the former already moving to vet imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, becoming the first EU country to do so.<\/p>\n

For many diplomats, any further steps will depend on Israel\u2019s implementation of the humanitarian agreement brokered last week. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKallas insisted to the Israelis that it cannot just be an agreement on paper it needs to be implemented on the ground,\u201d one diplomat said. \u201cIt depends if Israel puts the Kallas plan into action on the ground,\u201d said another EU diplomat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we can see some results by Tuesday, I think that will be an important sign from the side of Israel that they have agreed to do this and are willing to implement it,” said a third.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Israeli airstrikes are ongoing as is the blockade, despite the announcement, the third diplomat pointed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Israeli military launched its Gaza campaign in response to the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n

At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By&nbspMaia de la Baume and Shona Murray Published on 14\/07\/2025 – 6:30 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT The EU\u2019s top diplomat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,2557,1815,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-263342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-israel-hamas-war","13":"tag-kaja-kallas"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114849755069678121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}