IMAGE: Olof Skoog, the EU’s special representative for human rights and Josep Borell, former EU Foreign Affairs Chief
On November 11, 2024, a human rights unit within the EU’s foreign service audited Israel’s actions, resulting in a confidential 35-page report commissioned by then-EU Foreign Affairs Chief Josep Borrell. Excerpts from this report were first revealed by The Intercept last December. Now, EU Observer has published the full report, detailing established EU facts about the Gaza conflict. The report is so detrimental that it will prevent the EU from asserting that Israel did not breach Article 2 of the association agreement regarding human rights compliance, in their expected statement on June 23. Article 2 states that EU-Israel relations must be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.
The assessment was prepared by Olof Skoog, the EU’s special representative for human rights, and sent to EU ministers ahead of a council meeting set for November 18. This move was part of a recommendation from the head of the EU’s foreign policy to suspend political talks with Israel. Nevertheless, the proposal was rejected by the Council of Foreign Ministers of EU member states. The most troubling element of this document is that EU officials have been acutely aware of numerous abuses, violations, and potentially war crimes for an extended period; however, they have completely neglected to implement any actions to address this, making the EU a flagrant accomplice to the Gaza genocide. On May 20, 2025, the High Representative/Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP) declared the initiation of a review concerning Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.
REPORT: European Union special representative for human rights Note to the HRVP – Situation in the Middle East 11 November 2024: Ref. Ares(2024)8069555-13/11/2024
Situation in the Middle East in November 2024.
Throughout the years, the credibility of the EU has diminished due to various corruption scandals, including the infamous “Qatargate” and the covert negotiations conducted by Ursula von der Leyen regarding the Pfizer vaccine, among others. Nevertheless, willfully ignoring egregious human rights abuses could ultimately spell disaster for Von der Leyen and her Baltic lackeys. Andrew Rettman, the editor of EU Observer, has meticulously examined the document and provides a detailed analysis for our understanding…
IMAGE: EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Israel in October 2023, following the lethal attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas (Source: EU Commission)
Andrew Rettman reports for EU Observer…
Leak of EU’s full 2024 Gaza report piles pressure on Israel
Even though a suspension of commercial ties between the EU and Israel remains unlikely, the publication of an internal EU paper from 2024 spelling out Israel’s “war crimes” in Gaza will make it harder to claim Tel Aviv deserves to keep free-trade perks.
The EU foreign service and European Commission are currently “reviewing” whether Israel’s actions merit freezing their association agreement, which helps it sell some €15bn a year of arms, wine, cosmetics, and other items to Europe on preferential terms. Diplomats expect them to complete the process by 23 June, when EU foreign ministers hold their last meeting before the summer recess.
Civil society groups and some EU countries, such as Ireland and Spain, have been demanding to suspend the EU-Israel pact for over a year, however, the EU commission, led by German conservative Ursula von der Leyen, has so far shied away from holding Israel accountable, posing a risk their review will come to weak conclusions. And in the European Parliament, only a small group of MEPs has called for the suspension.
The EU foreign service, for its part, declined to tell EU Observer whether its review would even be made public.
“No comment on the process,” it said.
But a human rights cell in the EU foreign service already audited Israel’s actions on 11 November 2024, in a closely guarded, 35-page internal survey, ordered by the then EU foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell. Isolated quotes from the 2024 report were first published by US news website The Intercept last December. But EUobserver’s sources agreed to now publish the earlier report in full for the first time, to show exactly what von der Leyen and her officials already have in their inboxes as established EU facts on the Gaza war.
The earlier report is so damning, it would make a mockery of the EU if it were to say on 23 June that Israel had not broken article 2 of the association agreement on human-rights compliance. Article 2 states: “Relations between the parties [EU and Israel], as well as all the provisions of the agreement itself, shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.”
The 2024 EU paper said it “does not include any value judgment by … the EU”, but still said Israel was “in violation of the fundamental principles of IHL [international humanitarian law]” by killing tens of thousands of women and children. It also spoke of Israel’s “use [of] starvation as a method of warfare, which … constitute[s] atrocity crimes”, using authoritative sources, such as findings by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
“The evidence is so overwhelming the EU would make a joke of itself if it were to say Israel was in compliance with article 2 or with the laws of war,” said Claudio Francavilla from Human Rights Watch (HRW).
It would also amount to the EU “trashing the whole UN system and the world court” if Brussels now rejected the factuality of the OHCHR and ICJ findings it had earlier quoted, he added.
H.A. Hellyer from a British think-tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said: “The [leaked] document makes it abundantly clear that the EU recognised quite some time ago that abuses were taking place, and yet avoided taking actions that are mandated by its own rules”.
“The most disturbing aspect of this document is that EU officials have, for a long time, been continuously well aware of various abuses, violations, and even likely war crimes … [but] have utterly failed to take measures to tackle this”, he added.
And Israeli violations since November 2024 have only become worse. Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on 16 May that Israeli actions in Gaza were “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”, for instance.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory also said on 13 March, for example, that the Israeli army was guilty of “the crime against humanity of extermination” of Gaza civilians, as well as “sexual and gender-based violence” against Palestinian women and children, which “amounted to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment”.
And that is not to include Israeli abuses in the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria, which the UN has also chronicled and which also relate to the EU’s article 2 decision. But even if the new EU foreign service review says in black-and-white that Israel has violated the association pact, there is no guarantee that EU capitals will agree to take action. Suspending the whole Israel association agreement would require unanimity in the EU Council, where Israel’s staunchest EU ally, Hungary, is expected to veto such a move, EU diplomats told this website.
Suspending just the trade part of the accord, costing Israel some €1bn/year according to estimates by civil society groups, would require a qualified majority vote — but that also meant that either Germany or Italy would have to turn against Israel for the vote to pass.
Neither the Israeli-friendly Germany nor Italy joined the 17 EU countries that called for the Article 2 review on 20 May.
The EU has already lost credibility in the Global South and in the eyes of its own general public by giving Israel a free pass on Gaza.
“The past 20 months of sanctions-free EU diplomacy have achieved nothing”, said HRW’s Francavilla, adding, “If anything, “Israel has done exactly the opposite of what the UN, ICJ, and EU have been calling for. If the forthcoming EU review “makes a clear-cut, unequivocal determination that Israel was guilty of war crimes … it will be much harder for Germany and Italy to ignore,” he concluded.
Nightmare of stupidity
But if Israel let in more aid to Gaza in the run-up to 23 June, prompting the EU to decide this was enough to let it off the hook, that would be a “nightmare scenario and incredible demonstration of political stupidity”, Francavilla continued.
Rusi’s Hellyer also said: “It would cause substantial damage to the EU’s credibility worldwide on issues of human rights”.
Hugh Lovatt, a Middle East expert in London at the European Council on Foreign Affairs think-tank, told this website: “The biggest risk is that the EU commission draws out the review process and ultimately does not make a conclusion on article 2, leaving it to member states to decide”.
“That is certainly one outcome being speculated in private amongst [EU] officials,” he said. “With regard to Germany and Italy — Israeli actions in Gaza are driving growing and, in the German context, unprecedented criticism of Israel,” Lovatt noted. “They are currently hoping to moderate Israeli actions in Gaza and arguing in favour of engagement to neutralise the article 2 review, but the more Israel’s destruction of Gaza continues, the more likely it is Berlin and Rome will support, or at least not oppose, meaningful EU action,” Lovatt added.
See more news from the EU Observer
READ MORE EU NEWS AT: 21st CENTURY WIRE EU FILES
SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV
VISIT OUR TELEGRAM CHANNEL
