EU foreign ministers will discuss proposals on Monday to partially or fully ban trade with Israeli settlements, but the path to implementing any restrictions is fraught with difficulty, with some capitals accusing the European Commission of employing "delay tactics".
As first reported by Euronews, the Commission last week pitched a paper outlining three options to further restrict EU trade with the settlements, after a majority of EU capitals called for concrete measures in response to escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law and by the EU. While the bloc does not currently ban imports of products made in settlements, such goods are subject to higher tariffs because they fall outside the scope of the EU's 2000 trade deal with Israel, known as the Association Agreement.
But crucially, the Commission's paper suggests any measures should be treated as a foreign policy tool and therefore require the unanimous blessing of all EU member states — an unlikely prospect given that several European governments are staunch allies of Israel.
Germany, a crucial country in the debate, is also understood to favour the unanimity option.
