Kallas pressures her colleagues over Israel’s trade sanctions

The European Commission should present legal options to stop trade in illegal Israeli settlements, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said on Monday.

The EU’s top diplomat – who is herself a commissioner – said many member states had called for the measures at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Her remarks will put further pressure on her boss Ursula von der Leyen and Maroš Šefčovič, the trade commissioner, to come up with the measures, amid a dispute within Berlaymont over what legal basis to use and whether such measures are worth delaying while other sanctions remain stuck.

“I (…) will ask the Commission to prepare before the next Foreign Affairs Council a list of options for possible trade measures, including measures aimed at preventing imports of goods originating from illegal settlements,” she said. The Council meets next on July 13 in Brussels.

Trade measures would only require the support of a qualified majority of countries as opposed to all 27, meaning capitals opposed to the move such as Prague could be bypassed. However, this slimmer majority has so far proved elusive when it comes to suspending Israel’s trade deals and the EU’s association agreement.

Some commissioners pushed back in her call for such measures at a meeting in May, telling Kallas to focus on building consensus on the stalled sanctions against Israel that have already been proposed.

The latest push comes from a Franco-Swedish newspaper in late April. The EEAS then published an ‘options letter’ which failed to materialize in May. Kallas then emphasized that she was waiting for Sefcovic to act, saying that she had asked for the proposal, but “I can’t draft it”.

The former Prime Minister of Estonia has kept a silence afterwards Euractiv’s reporting that she broke the official EU foreign policy line when comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid South Africa.

Kallas also said there was “no consensus” on a multi-country push to sanction Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right Israeli minister, over the brutal treatment of flotilla activists.

Nicoletta Ionta contributed reporting

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