EU Ministers Step Up Calls For Sanctions On Israel Following Orbán Loss

April 22, 2026 
EurActiv
By Thomas Moller-Nielsen


(EurActiv) — Ministers from Spain, Belgium, and Ireland have vehemently denounced Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and crackdown on Palestinian rights, as an imminent change of government in Hungary raises the prospect of EU sanctions on the Jewish state.

Speaking before a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday morning, Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares – whose government has been one of the most vocal critics of the US-Israeli war on Iran – said the bloc risks losing its “credibility” if it fails to impose punitive measures on Israel.

“If we are not capable of saying today to Israel that respecting human rights, respecting international law, not making war its only foreign policy tool, and accepting that there must be a different way to relate with its neighbours … than just waging war, we are going to lose our credibility,” said Albares.

“We have to say the same thing that we say to Russia concerning Ukraine, and that we say in other scenarios,” he added.

Albares’ remarks were echoed by Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s foreign minister, who condemned Israel’s “attitude” towards Lebanon as “totally unacceptable” – although he also denounced the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group for having “dragged Lebanon into a war it did not want”.

“Israel’s disproportionate and indiscriminate reaction is completely problematic and reprehensible,” said Prévot, adding that he was in Beirut on ‘Black Wednesday’ on 8 April, when Israel launched more than a hundred strikes across Lebanon that killed more than 300 people.

The remarks come as Viktor Orbán’s recent loss to Péter Magyar in the Hungarian parliamentary elections raises the possibility of a significant shift in EU policy toward Israel, whose war on Iran is currently subject to a shaky ceasefire that is set to expire on Wednesday.

Orbán has previously blocked EU sanctions on Israeli settlers and is set to hand over the Hungarian premiership to Magyar next month.

Helen McEntee, Ireland’s foreign minister, cited Israel’s recent introduction of the death penaltyfor Palestinians, restrictions on aid into Gaza, and the expansion of settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as additional reasons to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which governs trade relations between the EU and Israel.

“I’m not sure whether we’ll reach an agreement on certain specific issues today,” McEntee said. “[But] I hope that we will get to a point where there is an agreement to take action and to respond to what have been completely unacceptable actions.”

However, German foreign minister Johann Wadephul downplayed this possibility, saying the suspension of the Association Agreement or the imposition of individual sanctions on Israel would be “inappropriate”.

Suspending the trade part of the Association Agreement requires the support of a ‘qualified majority’ of EU countries – a threshold which, EU diplomats say, would only be reached if Italy or Germany backed the move. Sanctions, meanwhile, require the unanimous support of all 27 EU capitals.

“We continue to insist that a two-state solution must be made possible, but this must be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel,” Wadephul said.

Ministers were, however, uniformly optimistic that Orbán’s defeat could soon see Budapest lift its veto on fresh sanctions on Russia and unblock a stalled €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine.

“I, of course, can’t speak for the new Hungarian government,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief. “But, of course, a lot of issues