In December 2022, negotiations over a long-delayed agreement between Europol and the Israeli government were reportedly frozen.
Diplomatic sources attributed the impasse to disagreements among EU member states and concerns that Benjamin Netanyahu’s emerging coalition with the far-right Religious Zionist party could undermine the principle that EU-Israel cooperation should not, even formally, legitimise Israel’s occupation policies.
According to leaked documents and internal files, the UK-based NGO Statewatch, in collaboration with EUobserver, ND and Apache, has reconstructed what happened, offering new insight into an institutional standoff between the European Commission and EU member states.
In late 2022, the Council’s legal department asked the commission (the EU’s executive arm, responsible for negotiating the agreement) to substantially revise the draft text.
Despite those concerns, the commission’s directorate-general for migration and home affairs continued holding meetings with Israeli diplomats to discuss the deal until at least January 2026.
