Spain’s PM Calls on EU to Sever Trade Pact with Israel

(MENAFN) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Sunday that Madrid will formally call on the European Union to terminate its Association Agreement with Israel, escalating the bloc's most consequential diplomatic confrontation with Tel Aviv to date.

"A government that violates international law, and therefore violates the principles and values of the European Union, cannot be a partner of the EU. It's that simple," Sanchez said at a campaign rally in Andalusia.

The proposal will be tabled at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, with Sanchez urging fellow member states to rally behind the initiative.

"We are going to do it not because we have anything against the Israeli people, but because we do not agree with their government's actions," he added.

Sanchez also took direct aim at the ongoing war involving Iran, branding it "an enormous mistake." "It is costing thousands of human lives, displacing millions of people and causing billions of euros in economic losses," he said, before calling on those who launched the conflict to halt hostilities. "That is why I ask those who started the war to stop the war and to put a stop to Netanyahu," he added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The push to dissolve the agreement—which establishes a free trade area between the EU and Israel and includes a human rights compliance clause—has been building for over a year. Spain and Ireland first jointly called for a review of the deal in 2024. By May 2025, the bloc had agreed to undertake that review, and a month later the European Commission acknowledged finding "indications" that Israel may be in breach of its human rights obligations, though it stopped short of recommending any concrete measures in response.

In recent days, Madrid has renewed its campaign to bring the agreement back to the table, this time joined by Ireland and Slovenia.

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