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The European Commission has issued proposals to EU member states to partially suspend Israel’s access to the EU’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme in response to Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza.
EU Commissioners met on Monday 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 move would affect the participation of Israeli start-up businesses with “disruptive innovations and emerging technologies that have potential dual-use applications, such as cyber-security, drones and artificial intelligence”, a statement from the European Commission said.
Until this decision, EU Commissioners including President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen have collectively refused to support any action against Israel.
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 member states such as Austria, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic are still unlikely to agree to taking action against Israel.
However, the motion could pass with the qualified majority voting, which means larger state such as Italy would have to support it in order to meet the requirements.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is “catastrophic” and demanded “the people of Gaza be given immediate, unfettered, safe access to humanitarian aid.”
In a post on social media, Schoof also said his government could take even stronger action against Israel.
The Hague supports the plan to suspend Israeli participation in Horizon, adding the Netherlands will “also press for further European measures, for example in the realm of trade”, he 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.
But strong consensus within the EU is that Israel has not enacted its part of the deal.
“Clearly the situation in the last few days in Gaza is still awful, and although some more aid is getting in, distribution has been deadly,” a highly placed source told Euronews.
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 they considered the Commission “has washed its hands of the matter” up to this point.
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