The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is under growing pressure from MEPs to “show leadership” and preserve the EU’s political credibility by taking a tougher approach to Israel’s government over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
Von der Leyen is expected to refer to the EU’s role on the world stage in her annual “state of the union” speech to the European parliament on Wednesday, where she will set out her agenda for the year ahead.
But the German Christian Democrat is facing growing criticism from centrists and the left that her commission seems “disconnected” from the situation on the ground and needs to take a tougher line on Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.
The EU has found Israel in breach of human rights obligations and drawn up a list of possible sanctions, but stopped short of action, amid deep splits among its 27-member states. The commission proposed in July a partial suspension of Israel’s participation in the EU’s Horizon €94bn research programme but has failed to find the necessary majority, without the support of big member states, such as Germany and Italy.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told MEPs on Tuesday that Europe was not united over Gaza: “Our options are clear and remain on the table, but member states disagree on how to get the Israeli government to change course … We cannot move as a union until member states share the same view on what to do.”
Kallas said there had been “some positive developments” since the EU signed a humanitarian aid deal with Israel in July. Between 10 July, when the agreement was announced, and 1 September, 2,904 trucks had entered Gaza, compared with none between March and July, she said.
The agreement had led to the re-opening of crossing points and more fuel getting into the strip, she said, adding, however, it was “not enough”.
Iratxe García Pérez, the Spanish leader of the Socialists in the European parliament, said the agreement had been used as “the excuse … to take no action against the government of Israel”.
“We are going to demand von der Leyen stop her silence, because we cannot be complicit when we have an Israel government assassinating so many tens of thousands of people,” García Pérez said. “What we need is European leadership.”
Hilde Vautmans, a Belgian liberal MEP, said Europe risked losing its credibility. “This famine is not a natural disaster; it is a political act, and Europe must respond with political courage …. If Europe continues to speak of values while refusing to act, we will lose our credibility and betray our founding promise: never again.”
Vautmans, who is allied to Kallas, has drafted a resolution calling on the EU to suspend the trade part of the EU-Israel association agreement and use its leverage “to prevent further obstacles to the two-state solution” including stronger sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the West Bank and banning trade in products from illegal settlements.
It remains unclear whether her text, which will be put to a vote on Thursday, will garner support from other groups, including von der Leyen’s European People’s party and the Socialists, with some left-wingers suggesting it is not strong enough.
Bas Eickhout, co-leader of Green MEPs, said the EU executive seemed “disconnected” as it repeated statements in favour of a two-state solution, without taking account of the Israeli government’s actions that made that harder to achieve, such as settlements in the West Bank.
“We need the commission to speak out on that and not every time just repeating ‘we are in favour of the two-state solution’. That feels like people are disconnected from what is happening there,” he said.
He contrasted von der Leyen’s approach to Gaza with her stance on Ukraine, such as her push for the war-torn eastern European country to get EU candidate status, despite reservations from EU member states.
“If we would have been waiting until 27 member states were ready to accept the candidacy membership of Ukraine, we would probably still be talking now. Sometimes, you need to propose it to get things moving in the council [of EU member states]. And that is what we expect from this commission also on Gaza. It is about European leadership.”
Separately, 116 former MEPs have written to von der Leyen and Kallas urging the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement. Signatories include former politicians from the centre-right to the radical left, including the former EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell, previously a Socialist MEP and president of the European parliament, who has become an outspoken critic of the EU’s approach to Israel.
