4 hours ago
5
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for a suspension of trade with Israel, as she spoke of Europe’s “painful” inability to respond to the war on Gaza and ensuring humanitarian disaster.
In her most extended condemnation yet of the Israeli government, von der Leyen criticised plans for illegal settlements that would split the occupied West Bank in half, as well as incitement of violence by extremist Israeli ministers, as a “clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution”.
She made the remarks during her annual “state of the union” speech to the European parliament in Strasbourg, during which she depicted a turbulent world, where battle lines “are being drawn” and “dependencies are ruthlessly weaponised”.
In response to Russia’s overnight violations of Polish airspace, she said Europe “stands in full solidarity with Poland”, a line prompting MEPs to their feet applauding in support. Von der Leyen continued, calling for Europe to exert more pressure on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to come to the negotiation table.
It was a pugnacious speech after a bruising summer when von der Leyen received heavy criticism for the EU’s approach to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, as well as her much-criticised trade deal with Donald Trump, while forest fires intensified by the climate crisis consumed European land equivalent to one third of the size of Belgium.
Describing Europe’s inability to agree on a response to Gaza as painful, von der Leyen said the EU executive would freeze its bilateral support to Israel, apart from funds for civil society groups and Yad Vashem holocaust memorial centre. The commission would also table proposals to suspend the trade parts of the EU-Israel association agreement and draft sanctions on Israeli extremist ministers and violent settlers in the West Bank, she said.
It remains unclear whether the divided EU will find the majority to suspend trade, as a less ambitious measures to freeze Israel’s participation in the EU’s research programme remains blocked. The commission previously considered sanctions against two far-right Israeli minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, for their incendiary statements against people in Gaza, but stopped short of tabling the proposal, fearing it would not get the unanimity required.
Von der Leyen also reiterated her wish to end the principle of consensus-based decisions governing European foreign policy, saying it was time to “break free from the shackles of unanimity”.
In a wide-ranging speech that gestured to critics on her left, she pledged to stay the course on the EU’s climate agenda, promised a strategy to eradicate poverty in Europe by 2050 and revealed her interest in Australia’s “pioneering” social media restrictions for children. She announced that a panel of experts would look at the best approach to Europe, saying: “Parents, not algorithms, should be raising our children.”
The speech was also a response to criticism from her left over the EU’s inaction on Israel.
The leader of the Socialists in the European parliament, Iratxe García Perez, welcomed the steps, but said they came “too little, too late”. The Socialist leader also attacked the EU trade deal with Donald Trump, which was unveiled at the US president’s golf course in the Scottish resort of Turnberry. García Pérez said the trade deal was “unacceptable” and “an abuse of power” and that von der Leyen had gone to Scotland to bury “our strategic autonomy under a golf course”.
At times von der Leyen also faced barracking from far-right MEPs, now the third-largest group in the European parliament, who booed when she spoke of her alarm about declining vaccination rates and heckled when she announced a new European initiative to counter disinformation.
after newsletter promotion
She defended her trade deal with Trump, saying that a fully-fledged trade war with the US would have led to chaos. “The deal provides crucial stability in our relations with the US at a time of grave global insecurity,” she said, arguing that some of the EU’s competitors had worse terms with the US.
She urged more sanctions on Ukraine and said that with allies, Europe was looking at a faster phase-out of Russian fossil fuels, clamping down on the shadow fleet used to transport Russian oil around the world, as well as actions against countries aiding Russia to evade sanctions.
Von der Leyen did not respond directly to reports that Trump has asked the EU to impose 100% tariffs on India and China, in an attempt to force Putin to the negotiating table. Both countries are large buyers of Russian oil and host companies that act as middlemen by selling western goods to Russian buyers, so evading European and US sanctions.
She said the EU was working urgently on a “a new solution to finance Ukraine’s war effort” based on an estimated €300bn in frozen Russian assets in the west. She floated the idea of a reparations loan for Ukraine that would leave the Russian assets legally intact.
The EU is taking interest from Russian assets held in the bloc, but has stopped short of outright confiscation, fearing damaging repercussions for eurozone stability.
