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<\/a><\/p>\nKaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, following a meeting of the foreign ministers of the EU member states in Brussels, July 13, 2026. (Michael Brandt\/picture alliance via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Foreign ministers debated various tactics to respond to the settlements on Monday at their monthly council meeting in Brussels, against the backdrop of rising violence by settlers and efforts by the Israeli government to expand settlements in Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n
In a press conference following the meeting, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said one possibility had stood out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe option that got the most support was banning the trade with illegal settlements,\u201d she said. All 27 member states consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to violate international law. <\/p>\n
Kallas added, \u201cWe tasked the ambassadors to take this work forward, and probably will also have an extraordinary meeting on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
No decisions have yet been made, and the path forward is uncertain. Some EU member nations favor aggressive action against the settlements, while others are unlikely to back any measures that take aim at Israel. A number are in the middle and have not decided whether they support trade bans.<\/p>\n
The level of agreement between European governments needed to enact a partial or full trade ban on Israeli settlements remains an open question. Kallas said it was the European Council\u2019s legal opinion that voting on trade issues called for a qualified majority, meaning that 15 out of 27 states would have to vote in favor, representing at least 65% of the EU population.<\/p>\n
But she also acknowledged that legal experts disagreed about how much backing was needed for a trade ban. \u201cYou can always find different lawyers who come up with different ideas,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar accused Kallas of an \u201cobsessive campaign against Israel\u201d in a post on X. \u201cThere was no consensus. There was no qualified majority. In fact, there was no majority at all,\u201d he wrote, adding, \u201cTricks like this do nothing to advance our shared interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU has hotly debated measures against Israel as settlements in the West Bank have expanded and settler violence has sharply intensified over recent years. The Israeli NGOs Peace Now and Kerem Navot said in a report last week that \u201cthe current Israeli government has advanced de facto annexation of the West Bank at an unprecedented pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministers considered measures including a stricter export licensing system, higher tariffs and a partial or outright ban on goods produced over the pre-1967 lines. The options were first presented in a paper last week by the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive branch, as pressure mounted from European governments.<\/p>\n
Kallas said these potential moves were not \u201coptions against Israel,\u201d but \u201coptions against the illegal settlements that undermined the two-state solution.\u201d She told reporters before the meeting that member states had been pressing for a trade ban on Israeli settlements, saying, \u201cEveryone agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n
In May, the EU sanctioned Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians after Hungary\u2019s new government, led by Peter Magyar, gave its approval and allowed the states to reach a consensus. <\/p>\n
To protest the Gaza war, the commission last year proposed suspending the EU\u2019s free trade agreement with Israel as set out under the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the cornerstone of economic and political cooperation between Europe and Israel. The proposal was not advanced because it lacked the majority support of 15 member states.<\/p>\n
The EU is Israel\u2019s largest trading partner, accounting for 33.1% of its imports and 29.4% of its exports in 2025, according to a summary on the European Commission website, which did not provide data on settler goods. The free trade agreement does not apply to goods originating from Israeli businesses located over the pre-1967 lines.<\/p>\n
Revoking the association agreement requires unanimous approval from the EU\u2019s 27 member states, while a partial suspension, such as freezing the free trade agreement, calls for a qualified majority. Germany, Italy, Hungary and Czechia have consistently opposed such suspensions.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s most vocal critics in Europe, including Ireland and Spain, have pushed for suspending the association agreement along with proposing their own import bans at the national level. Ireland now holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, a six-month term that ends in December 2026.<\/p>\n
The legal basis of trade restrictions on Israel lies at the heart of debates in the EU. Support from a qualified majority is sufficient to enact a commercial policy, while changes in the common foreign and security policy \u2014 such as sanctions \u2014 require unanimity.<\/p>\n
Some legal scholars have argued that an EU ban on imports from Israeli settlements should be imposed as a trade measure rather than a sanction, making it easier to pass.<\/p>\n
A group of 40 scholars said in an open letter last month to Kallas, trade chief Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen that a blanket ban on settlement imports had a legal basis under the EU\u2019s common commercial policy. Claims that unanimity was needed for the prohibition were \u201cgrounded in political rather than legal considerations,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
The scholars also referenced an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in 2024, which said that Israel\u2019s military control of Palestinian territories in the West Bank constituted an illegal occupation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that regard, it should be noted that the EU Court of Justice has ruled that, in its acts, the EU is \u2018bound to observe international law in its entirety,\u2019\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Daniel Mariaschin, Honorary CEO of the pro-Israel Jewish advocacy organization B\u2019nai Brith International, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that reducing trade \u201cwould only weaken one of Europe\u2019s most important partnerships in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are those within the EU who are looking for any way to undercut Israel\u2019s international standing, and this is yet another example,\u201d Mariaschin said.<\/p>\n