Albares: “What Spain defended almost alone in the Middle East is now a common position of the EU”

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, expressed his satisfaction on Monday with the declaration adopted “at 27” at the end of the meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council, which includes “the points that Spain has been maintaining for months practically alone”, such as the two-state solution, the defence of human rights, respect for international courts and their decisions, the rejection of forced displacement and support for the work of the NGO and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). The thirteenth meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council was chaired by the High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Gideon Sa’ar, in the presence of the Commissioner for the Mediterranean, Dubravka Šuica, and representatives of the EU Member States. According to the Council, “the parties engaged in a political dialogue, focusing on the conflict in Gaza and Israeli-Palestinian relations, regional issues, including Iran, and global problems.” In addition, “the debate also covered bilateral relations between the EU and Israel.” “Article two of the Association Council speaks clearly of respect for human rights” and the Association Agreement itself (whose revision has been insistently demanded by Spain due to violations of international law and human rights in Gaza) “is based on principles that must be shared: democracy, human rights, respect for international law” and, therefore, Spain has made a “call for these principles, which cannot be renounced by the EU, to be the principles that govern the relationship with Israel,” Albares told reporters at the end of the meeting. The minister described it as a “success” that a declaration for the EU-Israel Council of 27 was “managed to establish”, because “a few months ago that would have been unthinkable, there were very few of us who thought as is reflected in this declaration today”. “There is clear Spanish leadership”, he said. “The points that Spain has been maintaining for months, at first practically alone with very few States, are all reflected in this declaration”, which “supports the Palestinian State and the two-State solution, which supports human rights, respect for them in Gaza and the West Bank, which supports respect for international courts and their decisions” and which “clearly rejects any policy of forced displacement, of preventing the work of NGOs” and the “obstruction of the work of UNRWA with the laws of the Knesset”, he declared. In addition, he said, the text supports “the Global Alliance for the two-state solution, which will hold a very important meeting in June” at the United Nations headquarters in New York, “to move towards the implementation of the two-state solution.” “These are principles that Spain has defended, but they are principles that are now a common position of the EU,” he reiterated. Proposal from Spain and Ireland The EU-Israel Association Council is the ministerial body responsible for developing the EU-Israel Association Agreement, signed in Brussels in 1995 and in force since 2000, which constitutes the legal basis governing relations between Israel and the European Union. Article two of the Agreement establishes that “relations between the Parties, as well as all the provisions of the Agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles, which guides their internal and international policy and constitutes an essential element of this Agreement.” Based on these principles, Spain and Ireland requested in February 2024 that the European Commission “undertake an urgent assessment” of Israel’s compliance with its human rights obligations under the Association Agreement and, “if it considers that it is in breach”, propose to the Council “appropriate measures for it to take into consideration.” In this regard, Albares did not make it very clear whether this statement satisfies the request made by Spain and Ireland a year ago. “Today was an exchange with Israel, we have to reflect on how to ensure that the principles contained in this agreement can be applied,” he explained. “We will be satisfied when the ceasefire is permanent, when all the hostages are freed, when humanitarian aid can enter massively and continuously and without any impediment and, above all, when we are applying the two-state solution,” he added. According to Albares, “it has been a frank dialogue with Israel in which we have conveyed, of course, Israel’s right to exist and that all Arab States normalise relations with Israel, solidarity with the families and with the hostages and the desire for all of them to be freed, but also that there can be no relationship between Israel and the EU that is not based on democratic principles, on international law, on respect for human rights and on the right of the Palestinian people to have a State and for the two-State solution to be implemented as soon as possible,” he continued. “I cannot say that what I have heard from the Israeli Foreign Minister is what I would have liked to hear from a State of Israel committed to the two-State solution, but I also say that the intervention of the Israeli Foreign Minister today is very different from the last one we heard the last time we met with him,” he said. Weapons to Israel Regarding the alleged flights from Spain with weapons for Israel, denounced by the organizations Progressive International, Palestinian Youth Movement and American Friends Service Committee, Albares assured that the Government is “not aware of these flights” and that it is “looking into them,” but he assured that, “of course, there is no authorization” and he wanted to “make it very clear that the non-authorization of licenses to export war material to Israel remains completely in force while the conflict lasts, as does the prohibition of making stopovers for ships whose final destination is Israel with war material.”

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