Foreign ministers will discuss the legal options in Brussels on Monday
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has sent legal options to EU governments for tightening restrictions or preventing trade with Israeli settlements.
The Commission document, seen by Euractiv and marked “restricted”, outlines three options including an import licensing system for settlement goods, punitive tariffs designed to price them out of the EU market, and an outright ban on imports originating in Israeli settlements which are illegal under international law.
But while the paper lays out the technical options for imposing trade measures on Israel, it strongly suggests the Commission believes such a move would constitute a political step rather than a simple economic measure – partly because of the tiny amount of trade the EU does with settlements.
The paper therefore suggests the EU should frame the move as foreign policy sanctions, which require the unanimous approval of 27 governments to agree them, a steeper threshold than trade measures require.
