Exclusive: Brussels puts trade ban with Israeli settlements on the table
The EU executive has laid out several options to further restrict EU imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after a majority of EU foreign ministers called for clarifying what restrictive trade measures could be taken during a meeting in June.
Brussels has proposed fully or partially banning imports of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements, alongside additional options to further restrict EU trade with settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to diplomatic sources.
The proposals come after a majority of member states urged the EU executive to propose tighter trading restrictions in response to the continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
An "options paper" circulated by the European Commission to EU member states on Wednesday, and seen by Euronews, outlines three measures to further tighten restrictions on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements, which are already excluded from preferential EU tariff treatment.
They include a full or partial ban on the import of settlement-made products but also stricter export licenses, as well as prohibitive tariffs. EU ambassadors are expected to provide their initial feedback in a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Friday before EU foreign ministers gather for further discussions on Monday.
However, the paper only outlines options, not actual proposals, and no formal decision is expected on this matter next week. The next formal Foreign Affairs Council is only expected in October, which for some member states will further delay the measures.
"The Commission is quite clearly buying time, but there is also no consensus within the Council," an EU diplomat told Euronews under the condition of anonymity, adding that, while they did not see the initiative as ideal, maybe it set the ball in motion.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights are considered illegal under international law.
The first option would require companies importing goods from Israeli settlements to apply for an export license, which was among the solutions pitched by the French and Swedish governments in a joint letter to the European Commission in April.
Yet the Commission’s options paper warns that such a system remains vulnerable to circumvention.
Recent investigations have found that exporters in Israeli settlements continue to sell their goods in European markets free of tariffs despite existing restrictions, using methods such as mislabeling and mixing of settlement goods with products made inside Israel.
Secondly, the Commission has proposed introducing higher tariffs to make the import of goods from settlements prohibitively expensive, but acknowledges that this option is also vulnerable to circumvention methods.
The third option is a full or partial ban on imports from illegal settlements, which would require customs officers in national authorities to identify goods from Israeli settlements at the EU borders.
The paper leaves open the issue of the legal basis, whether it should be commercial policy, on which a qualified majority suffices, or the common foreign and security policy, which requires unanimity.
The Council legal services, the influential legal advisory branch of the institution, told EU countries in an oral opinion that using the commercial policy legal basis should be possible, depending on the details of the proposal.
By contrast, the Commission reiterated in its paper that it considers the foreign policy legal basis is required, which would make any proposals extremely difficult to pass.
Euronews understands that at least 20 member states called on the Commission to outline the options available to further restrict settlement trade when foreign ministers gathered for talks in Luxembourg in June.
Political momentum behind the move has increased since France and Sweden urged the Commission to put forward a proposal in April, citing the 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the illegality of the Israeli settlements.
Several UN resolutions spanning from the late 1970s to today also state that settlement activity in the Palestinian territories is illegal.
By contrast, the Israeli government rejects the designation of those settlements as illegal, classifying them as "temporary sites."
Speaking to Euronews in May, France’s deputy minister for foreign trade, Nicolas Forissier, said that calling for tighter restrictions was “"not an aggressive position”. “In terms of [international] law and human rights, it's normal that we say that,” he added.
Israel has recently introduced measures aimed at strengthening its control over the West Bank and East Jerusalem in areas including property law, planning and licensing. Those moves appear to contravene key agreements that were signed under the Oslo peace agreement in 1993.
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