Belgium, which holds the presidency of the EU Council until the end of June, proposed the introduction of trade sanctions against Israel, Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croix said in an interview with Le Soir newspaper.
"The Belgian government decided a few weeks ago that it was necessary to impose trade sanctions against Israel. But if Belgium itself were to introduce these sanctions, trade routes would simply change. Therefore, for several weeks we have been discussing with other European countries how we can solve this problem without talking about it out loud”, he said.
According to De Croo, the EU could use Israel's non-compliance with the human rights clause in the association agreement with the EU as a pretext for sanctions.
According to him, Belgium has asked EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to “explore this possibility”.
Introducing any restrictions in the EU Council requires a unanimous decision by all 27 EU countries, which, given the sharp divisions between EU countries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, makes this task extremely difficult.< /span>