EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas announced that member states' ambassadors have been instructed to continue working on restrictions targeting trade with Israeli settlements.
Kallas held a press conference in Brussels on Monday following the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting. Noting that the situation in Gaza was also discussed at the meeting, Kallas said that around 900 million euros were raised at the second meeting of the Palestine Donor Group, held simultaneously.
Kallas said that following a request from the European Council in June, the European Commission had prepared various options to restrict trade with Israeli settlements, which were discussed at the meeting. "These options include a full or partial ban on imports of products made in settlements, tightening export license rules, and imposing customs duties," she said.
Kallas underlined that the options target settlements undermining the two-state solution, not Israel. She said that among member states, the option of taking measures against trade with settlements received the broadest support.
Under the EU-Israel partnership agreement, products originating in Israel benefit from preferential customs tariffs under certain conditions. However, products made in settlements in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights cannot benefit from this preferential system. Despite this, imports of these products into the EU are not completely banned.
It is known that some exporters circumvent the existing rules by misdeclaring the origin of products or mixing goods produced in settlements with those produced inside Israel.
Meanwhile, a new report published by the Global Echo Litigation Center revealed that 17.2 percent of more than 5,900 Israeli agricultural product shipments exported to Europe between 2017 and 2026 originated from illegal Israeli settlements.
