Sánchez’s call to suspend the EU association agreement with Israel lacks support ahead of ministerial meeting. Madrid revived proposal after hosting a tw-day progressive convention, urging an end to the war.
EU countries are set to push back on Spain’s request to end the EU-Israel association agreement during the Foreign Ministers' meeting on Tuesday in Brussels, diplomats told Euronews.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called on Sunday to break the agreement, accusing Israel of violating international law and therefore the terms of the deal. But his call is far from reaching the unified position needed to proceed.
Ireland and Slovenia have previously joined Spain in requesting to discuss the agreement, considering that Israel “is in breach of its human rights obligations” for continuous violations of the ceasefire agreement, escalating violence in the West Bank, attacks on civil population in Lebanon and the approval of the death penalty by the Israeli Parliament.
The total suspension of the association agreement requires “unified position” among the countries, EU Foreign Affairs chief Kaja Kallas said, although this is not explicitly stated by the EU treaties.
At the moment, “there is no broad consensus among the member states” to suspend the agreement, one diplomat told Euronews.
Countries such as Germany and Italy, which have opposed the initiative in the past, have not changed their stance.
“Italy will adopt a serious and balanced approach [on the matter], bearing in mind that there must be no negative consequences for the Israeli civilian population,” is the official position of the government led by Giorgia Meloni.
Other countries consider that the situation merits a new discussion, but do not foresee the support required for an immediate decision.
The full suspension was also requested by more than one million European citizens through a cross-border petition
A partial suspension of the same agreement was instead put forward by the European Commission last September, with the Gaza war still ongoing. President Ursula von der Leyen proposed to suspend the trade pillar of the deal, meeting a similar opposition by EU countries.
“I think it should be assessed whether it's possible to move with those [measures] if the member states have the wish to do so, to put pressure on Israel,” Kallas said, referring to the partial suspension, after a meeting for the implementation of the two-state solution, where she met Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.
The proposal has so far stalled, with member states deeply divided. Countries including Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have opposed the move, preventing the formation of a qualified majority (at least 55% of member states representing at least 65% of the total EU population) needed to adopt trade restrictions.
Hungary is key to sanctions against Israeli violent settlers
Another proposal made by the Commission is a set of sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
All the EU countries except Hungary agree with this initiative, which could have a positive outcome after the Hungarian elections.
“This country had the elections and will have a new government. I will not speak for the new government, but definitely I think we can look into all these policies and see whether they have a new approach,” Kallas told reporters on Monday. “Settler crimes need to be punished.”
Hungarian party Tisza, which is meant to form a new government in Budapest, has not answered Euronews’ questions on the topic.
In the New York Declaration, signed in July 2025, the EU committed to “adopting restrictive measures against violent extremist settlers and entities and individuals supporting illegal settlements.”
So far, it has sanctioned under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime nine individuals and five entities linked to violent extremism in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza during the war.
