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The European Commission is considering suspending Israel’s access to the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme in response to Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza, according to several EU sources familiar with the issue.
EU Commissioners are meeting today to discuss the move in response to the failure of Israel to implement a negotiated agreement to “substantially” improve access to food and medical supplies to Palestinians in Gaza.
“The partial suspension of Horizon will be discussed in the College of Commissioners today,” a high-level EU source confirmed to Euronews.
Until recently, EU Commissioners have refused to support any action against Israel.
If agreed by the Commission, the proposal will be discussed and potentially voted on by member states as early as Tuesday when EU ambassadors from all 27 member states will convene.
Suspending Israel from the Horizon programme was one of ten options the European Commission and member states were presented with on foot of a report confirming Israel was in breach of international law due to the dire situation for civilians across the Palestinian Territories.
Partially suspending Horizon would not require unanimous support across all 27 countries, and countries such as Austria, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic are still unlikely to support taking action against Israel.
It is a Commission proposal for member states “to partially suspend the agreement between the EU and Israel on the participation of Israel in the EU’s Horizon Europe”, the source affirmed.
“Clearly the situation in the last few days in Gaza is still awful, and although more aid is getting in, distribution has been deadly,” the source said.
On 10 July the EU negotiated a “significant” improvement of humanitarian aid access into Gaza, including an increase of food trucks, and an agreement to “protect the lives of aid workers”, after the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas dispatched a delegation to Tel Aviv, including Christophe Bigot, the EU’s Special Envoy to the Middle East.
The UN estimates over 1000 people have been killed at food distribution sites alone, and dozens have died of starvation in recent days.
“I hope they’re discussing actual measures and not just the situation in Gaza, we need action, not more declarations of how terrible it is,” said another EU diplomat close to the matter.
“Focusing on one option forces member states to make a decision, I’m not sure how economically this will impact Israel, but it shows political pressure is really mounting” on Israel, said this diplomat, adding that he considered the Commission “has washed its hands of the matter” up to this point.
