EU governments have rallied to the defence of Kaja Kallas to back her demand earlier this week that the European Commission prepares new measures to prevent trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
Ursula von der Leyen and her College of Commissioners have repeatedly and firmly rebuffed the calls by Kallas – who is both the EU’s foreign affairs chief and a Commission vice-president – for new restrictive trade measures.
Kallas repeated the demand, first made last month, after a majority of ministers at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday instructed the Commission to prepare “a list of options for possible trade measures aimed at preventing imports of goods originating from illegal settlements”.
On Tuesday, the Commission rejected her request angering national foreign ministries.
A senior EU diplomat said that, as far as member states are concerned, “the Commission will come before 13 July with an option paper including measures to ban trade from illegal settlements”.
“It is up to the Commission to come forward with these proposals as promised,” he said. “We count on that and no backtracking on what was decided.”
Kallas, with the support of 11 EU countries, has sought to use trade measures as an alternative to foreign policy sanctions, which require unanimity and can therefore be held hostage by national vetoes.
Her last attempt to use trade sanctions was rejected by the College in May.
The Commission has insisted that there is no qualified majority of EU governments in favour of such measures, an argument rejected by member states including Belgium, France, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
“There is a new dynamism in the room also from countries that before did not agree,” said one senior EU diplomat.
(cs)
