From secret deportations and European-funded projects destroyed in Gaza to EU recovery funds and mining lobbying, these ten investigations expose the widening gap between Europe’s rhetoric and the realities of its policies and actions.
The first female president of Ireland is no stranger to marginalisation. But a trip to the West Bank proved how extreme injustice can become normalised if there is no accountability, which “the EU has levers” to change
A group of leading scholars has questioned the legality of an EU Commission options paper on restricting imports from Israeli settlements, before EU foreign ministers revisit the issue in September.
Germany has betrayed its post-war moral and legal foundations by shielding Israel from accountability for alleged violations of international law, writes former EU envoy Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.
Leaked legal opinions and internal files reveal how EU Commission negotiators bypassed member states, ignored red flags on human rights, and kept talking to Israeli officials long after being told a 2022 draft deal for the exchange of personal data between Europol and Israel broke EU and international law.
Despite a strict ban in Spain on products from the illegally-occupied territories, three Israeli agricultural giants are openly boasting about shipping dates and nuts to the country — often relying on local suppliers and major supermarket brands to quietly reach Spanish shelves.
![Rima Hassan in her Brussels office: '[It's] not merely a lack of courage; it is a criminal policy to advocate for a two-state solution today'](/aws-https-static.euobserver.com/2026/07/DSC_0345-2-2400x1602.jpg)
Rima Hassan MEP has seen displacement, an Israeli prison, refugee camps, and since becoming a politician just two years ago, has faced 22 legal proceedings. But the Left Franco-Palestinian MEP will not stop denouncing ‘the genocide that is currently taking place’.
While an internal panel cleared Karim Khan of misconduct, US and Israeli pressure has pushed ICC governments toward a politically charged removal vote that quietly rewrites the court’s own rules.
Even the relevant EU commissioner, Dubravka Šuica, acknowledged the central obstacle: “To be open, the key problem is access to Gaza,” she said.
A tribunal created for one conflict — while acts of aggression in the Middle East and Latin America go unanswered — serves the court’s critics their strongest argument on a silver platter: that international criminal justice is a selective instrument of Western power, not a universal principle.
“The option that got the most support was banning trade with illegal settlements,” said EU foreign affairs chief Kallas, after talks with the 27 foreign ministers on Monday.
A ceasefire in name only, a blocked civilian committee in Cairo, and EU threats of sanctions that may not materialise — this episode unpacks why Gaza’s path to peace keeps slipping away.
THIS WEEK: EU weighs curbs on Israeli-settlement trade, as India tech ties and carbon market review top agendaThis week’s EU agenda stretches from restrictions on trade with Israeli illegal settlements and Gaza aid to a looming electrification push and carbon market review.
Crystal ball: EU will do nothing about Israel on MondayWadephul, Tajani, and other EU friends of Israel will say Lebanon peace talks and Israeli elections mean there should be no sanctions.
Drawing on months of research and consultations with lawyers, trade experts and former and current EU officials, we propose a regulation under the EU’s Common Commercial Policy. Such regulation should aim at ensuring that EU trade complies with international law and does not help sustain the illegal settlements economically.
Ahead of the key meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday (13 July), the European Commission has circulated an options paper exploring ways to restrict trade between the EU and Israeli illegal settlements in the West Bank. Here, EUobserver explains them.
The EU commission wants to maintain good relations with Israel, even as the UN human rights commission accuses the country of committing genocide in Gaza.
Recent answers from the European Commission to parliamentary questions we submitted confirm what journalists, humanitarian organisations and Palestinians themselves have documented for years
The EU´s inaction and silence during the war in Gaza landed a heavy and long-standing blow to the EU’s credibility in the Global South. But we now have both instruments and a window of opportunity to address it, writes S&D MEP Nacho Sánchez Amor.
Catholic cardinal risks Israel’s wrath in moral appeal for EU sanctionsSilence can also be violent, cynical, and spiteful, as with the EU failure to act against Israel, despite what the Vatican called its “destruction of entire cities … the enormous number of children killed.”
