European Union foreign policy chief: There are divisions within the European Union hindering the imposition of sanctions on Israel over the Gaza war

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Saturday she wasn’t very optimistic about the possibility of EU countries imposing sanctions on Israel despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

“I’m not very optimistic, and we certainly won’t adopt any decisions today (Saturday)… This sends a signal that we are divided,” Kallas said in Copenhagen ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The Estonian official stressed that the European Commission had proposed suspending European funding for Israeli startups, but even this relatively lenient measure wasn’t agreed upon by the 27 member states due to divisions.

Several European Union countries, particularly Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia, are reluctant to take action against Israel, while countries such as Ireland and Spain support this.

Denmark, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has advocated for a solution to circumvent the bloc’s unanimous decision-making rule on foreign policy.

Its Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, emphasized that the European Union must move from words to action, proposing, for example, to ban the entry of goods originating from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

He explained that this trade policy decision could be made by a required majority.

The consensus rule has stalled a large number of decisions, not only on Israel but also on Ukraine, due to Hungarian opposition.

The Danish minister emphasized, “We’ve a constitutional problem in Europe… The slowest ship in the convoy sets the pace… We must be able to take action that reflects the views of the majority”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, for his part, stressed that the situation in Gaza is an absolute tragedy.