LUXEMBOURG, October 20, 2025 (WAFA) – Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares supported on Monday the maintenance of EU sanctions on Israel.

Addressing journalists ahead of the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg, Albares said: “We are far from achieving everything we want—final peace, a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian aid, [and] a two-state solution,” as reported by Armenia-based NEWS.am.  

He stressed that “it is currently necessary to uphold sanctions” against Israel.

On September 15, the European Commission announced a proposal to suspend certain trade-related provisions of the Association Agreement between the EU and Israel and sanctions on two Israeli ministers.

Separate from the proposal, the Commission had announced that it was also freezing its bilateral support to Israel, a step that “affects future yearly allocations between 2025 and 2027, as well as ongoing institutional cooperation projects with Israel and projects funded under the Regional EU-Israel cooperation facility.”

The Commission had explained that the suspension “concerns the core trade-related provisions of the Agreement, and in practice means that imports from Israel will lose their preferential access to the EU market. These goods will therefore be charged duties at the level applied to any other third country with whom the EU has no free trade agreement.”

The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner, accounting for 32% of Israel's total trade in goods with the world in 2024. Israel is the EU's 31st largest trading partner.

Total trade in goods between the EU and Israel in 2024: €42.6 billion. The EU's exports to Israel amounted to €26.7 billion.

K.F.