Spain pushes for suspension of EU-Israel agreement: Albares calls for immediate vote

Speaking to the media before attending the Foreign Affairs Council (CAE) meeting in Brussels, the Spanish minister reiterated his request for total suspension of the association agreement with Israel. Given the lack of a unanimous vote from all member states, he called for at least a vote on the partial suspension, which only requires a qualified majority.

“We have talked for too long about the Commission’s measures and proposals. Now I ask that, for the part that only requires a qualified majority, the commercial component, we proceed with the vote and stop saying that there is no qualified majority”, stated the minister.

Albares stressed the need to ascertain “how many countries agree and how many don’t”, arguing that “it’s not enough” to “not bring decisions to the table” or “simply vaguely state” that there is no majority to suspend the association agreement with Israel.

“The best way to ascertain this is to hold a vote,” the minister continued, noting that the credibility of the European Union “is at stake” in this issue, as the current international situation represents “the biggest global crisis of this century.”

The minister complained that relations between the European Union and Israel continue “come if nothing were“, and recalled that there are a series of measures that “do not even require” the suspension of the Association Agreement, as it concerns “mere compliance” with the advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice.

He cited as an example the possibility that the EU could ban, “as Spain did”, the trade of products from the occupied territories in the West Bankas well as imposing sanctions on “violent settlers” or against “illegal settlement expansion”.

Albares’ statements come after the last meeting of EU foreign ministers, held in April, failed to reach an agreement on the partial or total suspension of the association agreement with Israel, a measure he supported, together with Ireland and Slovenia, and rejected by other countries such as Germany and Italy.

However, the 27 are expected to reach a unanimous political agreement today to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers for the violence perpetrated by their settlements in the West Bank, as the change of government in Hungary, with Prime Minister Peter Magyar at the helm, could lead to the revocation of the veto that his predecessor, Viktor Orbán, had exercised to block the approval of these restrictive measures.