November 13, 2026
Rapporteur
By Magnus Lund Nielsen
Key Takeaways:
A European Citizens’ Initiative calling for suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement has gathered more than 1.1 million signatures, the fastest to reach the one-million threshold, obliging the European Commission to examine it.
The Commission has six months to respond and a public hearing will follow in the European Parliament; organizers will meet Commission officials within a month of formal submission.
The petition, which met national thresholds in 12 countries and was backed by the European Left Alliance, comes amid existing Commission proposals to restrict imports from Israeli settlements that member states have not yet approved.
(Rapporteur) — A ‘European Citizens Initiative’ (ECI) to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement has received more than 1.1 million signatures, forcing the EU executive to examine the proposal and decide whether to move ahead or not.
The European Commission registered the initiative in November 2025 and the petition started formally collecting signatures in January. Three months later, in April, the petition reached one million signatures – the fastest initiative to ever do so.
Once an ECI receives one million verified statements of support it can submit a proposal examination by the Commission.
The Commission now has six months to respond and outline planned action if any – and reasons to do. Once a decision has been made, a public hearing will be organised in the European Parliament.
“As foreseen in the regulation, the Commission will meet the organisers within one month of submission to discuss the initiative,” a spokesperson told Rapporteur.
The EU-Israel Association Agreement has been in place since 2000 and covers trade, human rights and political dialogue.
While Israel is the EU’s 27th largest trading partner, the EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner.
After growing scrutiny of EU-Israel ties over its conduct in Gaza, the expansion of settlements, and violence by extremist settlers in the West Bank, the Commission in July proposed to restrict imports from Israeli settlements under the EU’s association agreement with Israel. EU countries have yet to approve the measure.
The petition received 1,117,000 signatures meeting the threshold in 12 countries – beyond the required seven. The threshold is the number of a country’s MEPs multiplied with the total number of MEPs, currently 720.
The petition received almost 340,000 signatures in France alone.
The petition has been filed and financially backed by the European Left Alliance – the pan-European political party home to France’s LFI and Spain’s Podemos – to the tune of a quarter million, according to Commission numbers.
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