Belgium proposes to EU Council to impose sanctions on Israel

Brussels, May 6 (Prensa Latina) Belgium, which holds the European Union (EU) Council presidency, has proposed to impose trade sanctions on Israel, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Monday in an interview with Le Soir newspaper.

May 6, 2024
10:17

De Croo stated that the Belgian Government decided a few weeks ago that imposing trade sanctions on Tel Aviv was necessary.

He added that if Belgium itself introduces these sanctions, the trade routes will change, so we have been discussing for weeks with other European countries how to solve this problem without saying it out loud.

According to De Croo, the EU can use Israel’s failure to comply with the human rights clause of the association agreement with the Community as a pretext to impose sanctions.

The prime minister added that Belgium asked EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell to explore this possibility.

Introducing any restrictions in the EU Council would require a unanimous decision by the bloc’s 27 member States, a task that would be extremely difficult given the sharp disagreements among its members over the Israel-Palestine conflict.

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