The EU has found that Israel is violating human rights with the genocide in Gaza and, therefore, violating its association agreement, but the equidistance of the majority of capital with that country has prevented it from moving card. Moreover, Brussels reached an agreement for the distribution of humanitarian aid in the strip that served as an excuse at 27 so as not to adopt any punishment. But the breach of that promise and the murder of defenseless people who go in search of this existential aid at a time when hunger raises, especially in children, has forced the European Commission to harden the tone. However, the sanction that is being raised is minimal.
The Colegio de Commissioners, who is already on summer vacations, has gathered in an extraordinary way and in hybrid format to analyze the partial suspension of Israel's participation in the Horizon Europe program, which serves to finance scientific programs, as the country has advanced. The measure must be proposed first in community government and then formally adopt the EU council, that is, the governments of the 27 by qualified majority (at least 15 countries that represent 65% of the European population. If the decision had been completely taken to Israel from Horizon's total, it would have been needed unanimously and it is practically impossible to reach it in the EU for the equidistance of many countries with Tel Aviv.
Within the European Commission itself there are different points of view. While the Hungarian commissioner is a supporter of not doing anything the first vice president, Teresa Ribera, or the responsible for crisis management, the Belgian Hadja Lahbib, are partisans of a firmer response from Brussels. And the Ursula von der Leyen cabinet also remains in equidistance.
“The suspension refers specifically to the participation of entities established in Israel in activities financed within the frame Cybersecurity, drones and artificial intelligence, ”says the European Commission in a statement.
Israel's participation in the Horizon program has been questioned for the suspicions that some projects have been used for military purposes. “The proposed suspension is a specific and reversible action. It does not affect the participation of Israeli universities and researchers in collaboration projects and research activities within the framework of Horizon Europe,” says the community government.
“While Israel has announced a daily humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza and has fulfilled some of its commitments by virtue of common understanding about humanitarian aid and access, the situation remains serious,” adds the European Commission. Despite the breach of article 2 of the Association Agreement and, subsequently, to skip the Pact for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip, the passage of the European Commission is below the measures that the high representative, Kaja Kallas, had put on the table.
His department elaborated a kind of “inventory” with possible measures to be taken by non -compliance with the association agreement by Netanyahu after verifying the “signs” of human rights violations in Gaza. That report came after more than 55,000 people were killed by the Israeli army. The document collected the possibility of suspending Israel's participation in the Horizon program.
The greatest punishment for Israel would be the total suspension of that association agreement, but no one in the EU raises that scenario. As a second option, there would be the partial suspension of the agreement, which could include the commercial part. This could also be carried out at the proposal of the European Commission and with a qualified majority of the Member States (15 countries that represent at least 65% of the European population), after passing through the association council in which Israel sits. But neither is there among 27 there is an appetite to reach that point. “Suspending the commercial agreement with Israel will not stop the Matanza in Gaza,” said the high representative, Kaja Kallas, a month and a half ago.
From there, minor measures emerge, such as the suspension of concrete programs such as Horizon or Erasmus to which he has access from the signing of a protocol in 2008 in the framework of the Association Agreement. Other possibilities would be the suspension of collaboration at the technical level. Within the framework of the security policy, the range of measures contemplated by the document prepared by the Kallas team is varied: from sanctioning the ministers that torpedo the solution of the two states (which for now has been in bucket in the EU, although countries such as the United Kingdom have made it) until promoting an embargo on the EU set. The procedure would pass through a European country to propose it to others, but everyone would have to agree. Spain or France have raised it, but not officially.
The movement of the European Commission, which is a first sanction of minimums within the framework of the Association Agreement, occurs after Germany, which is one of the countries that puts the most resistors to take measures against Israel has raised the tone. Foreign Minister Friedrich Merz, signed a statement along with Emmanuel Macron (France) and Keir Starmer (United Kingdom) in which they advocated moving towards the solution of the two states in full attacks by Tel Aviv to Gaza.
“The time has come to end the war in Gaza. We urged all parties to end the conflict reaching a high immediate fire,” said the statement, which did not establish any type of term.
