EU foreign ministers fail to break deadlock over Israel and Ukraine

EU foreign ministers met in Ireland but failed to agree on imposing trade sanctions on Israel or military support for Ukraine.

European Commission High Representative and Vice President Kaja Kallas (2nd L-front) and Ireland's Defence and Foreign Minister Helen McEntee (C-front) pose with visiting EU foreign affairs ministers during their informal meeting at Druids Glen in Wicklow on September 2, 2026 [AFP]

Wicklow, Ireland – “We have reached an impasse,” said Ireland’s Foreign Minister Helen McEntee at a gathering of European Union officials on Tuesday, summing up the bloc’s increasingly fractured position on trade sanctions on Israel.

Ireland, which currently holds the European Council’s presidency, and Spain pushed for EU-wide trade curbs on goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank at the September 1-2 meeting in Wicklow amid escalating settler violence against Palestinians.

France pressed for a stronger European response to Israeli rhetoric against Palestinians. “Condemnations from Israeli officials have been a good start, but they are not enough,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters, referring to Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s call for mass displacement in the Gaza Strip.

But several EU nations, including Germany and Hungary, opposed the move during the two-day informal gathering.

The Gymnich meeting, as the gathering is called, opened on Tuesday with renewed efforts by Dublin to revive discussions on sanctions against Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank – a proposal that has largely stalled in recent months because of divisions among member states.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade standing at more than $50bn.

Deadlock over Israel

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, acknowledged that the absence of unanimity had once again prevented the bloc from moving forward on measures against Israel, despite growing pressure from several governments for a stronger European response to illegal settlement expansion and settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Ireland has argued that the EU’s credibility depends on applying international law consistently, regardless of the conflict under discussion. Dublin has also pointed to what it sees as a disparity between the bloc’s willingness to impose sanctions and other measures in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine and its reluctance to take comparable action against Israel despite its ongoing genocide in Gaza and alarming rate of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The disagreement is not simply over how member states view the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but over what practical steps the EU should take. Ireland and several other governments have pushed for stronger measures, including action against individuals involved in settler violence and restrictions on trade linked to illegal Israeli settlements, while other member states have been reluctant to support such proposals.

Divisions over Ukraine

Ukraine dominated much of the first day’s talks, with Kyiv continuing to call for greater European military support.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has entered its fifth year, with Moscow escalating drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

Kyiv again urged European governments to provide additional air defence systems after months of sustained Russian drone attacks.

Yet ministers again failed to bridge their differences.

Greece and Spain maintained their opposition to using common EU funds to finance further purchases of air defence systems, leaving Ukraine without the additional missiles and interceptors it had hoped for from the meeting.

On the sidelines of the talks, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha appealed directly to European media, warning that delays in military support would come at a growing cost as Russia has intensified its aerial campaign. It did not seem to move the needle much.

The Ukraine debate also exposed another longstanding fault line within the bloc.

While Poland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands renewed calls to use frozen Russian sovereign assets to finance Ukraine’s military effort, Belgium, which holds the largest share of those assets, again resisted the proposal, citing unresolved legal and financial concerns.

Broader security challenges

Meanwhile, ministers also turned their attention to the wider Middle East.

The US-Israel war on Iran, now in its seventh month, has left European governments with limited diplomatic leverage despite the conflict directly affecting the continent, including concerns over energy security for the upcoming winter months.

The future of Lebanon, which continued to be attacked by Israel, was also discussed, with ministers considering a possible EU mission to train the Lebanese army as the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) ends this year.

Elsewhere, on August 30, EU forces operating in the Mediterranean boarded a tanker suspected of being linked to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, as part of broader European efforts to enforce sanctions against Moscow and disrupt attempts to evade them.

Internal strains persist

And if the external crises were not enough, the ministers also had some internal fires to deal with.

Just a day before the meeting, Italy renewed enhanced air and land checks on travellers arriving from Spain following a dispute linked to migration and border controls. Madrid responded by extending reciprocal measures.

The dispute followed an influx of migrants in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, after which Italy introduced additional checks on some travellers from Spain.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares urged other member states to support Madrid’s position on the border measures while criticising governments that, he said, had failed to support Spain during the Ceuta crisis.

At the end of the two-day meeting on Wednesday, ministers left having said more or less what they had said before.

“We are a dog that barks but doesn’t bite,” Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said at the meeting, expressing his frustration at the lack of support to sanction Israel.

After the meeting, the bloc is more or less where it started – plenty of shared concern, but very little shared action. The unanimity rule remains the EU’s Achilles heel – everyone has to agree, which means, in practice, almost nothing gets done.

欧盟外长在爱尔兰举行会议，但未能就对以色列实施贸易制裁或对乌克兰提供军事支持达成一致意见。

2026年9月2日，欧盟高级代表兼副主席卡娅·卡拉斯（左二）和爱尔兰国防部长兼外交部长海伦·麦肯蒂（中）在威克洛郡德鲁伊峡谷与来访的欧盟外交部长举行非正式会晤时合影。[法新社]

爱尔兰威克洛——爱尔兰外交部长海伦·麦肯蒂周二在欧盟官员会议上表示：“我们已经陷入僵局”，这概括了欧盟在对以色列实施贸易制裁问题上日益分裂的立场。

爱尔兰目前担任欧洲理事会轮值主席国，与西班牙在9月1日至2日于威克洛举行的会议上，敦促欧盟对在被占领的西岸以色列非法定居点生产的商品实施全欧盟范围的贸易限制，原因是定居者对巴勒斯坦人的暴力行为不断升级。

法国敦促欧洲对以色列针对巴勒斯坦人的言论做出更强硬的回应。法国外长让-诺埃尔·巴罗特在接受记者采访时表示：“以色列官员的谴责是一个良好的开端，但这还远远不够。”他指的是以色列国家安全部长伊塔马尔·本-格维尔呼吁在加沙地带进行大规模流离失所。

但在为期两天的非正式会议上，包括德国和匈牙利在内的几个欧盟国家反对这一举措。

此次会议被称为“吉姆尼希会议”，于周二开幕。都柏林方面再次努力重启关于对被占领的西岸以色列定居者实施制裁的讨论——由于成员国之间的分歧，这一提议在近几个月来基本陷入停滞。

欧盟是以色列最大的贸易伙伴，双边贸易额超过500亿美元。

以色列僵局

欧盟外交政策负责人卡娅·卡拉斯承认，尽管一些国家政府不断施压，要求欧洲对被占领巴勒斯坦领土上的非法定居点扩张和定居者暴力行为做出更有力的回应，但由于缺乏一致意见，欧盟再次未能就针对以色列的措施取得进展。

爱尔兰认为，欧盟的信誉取决于其能否始终如一地适用国际法，无论讨论的是何种冲突。都柏林还指出，欧盟一方面愿意对俄罗斯在乌克兰的行动实施制裁和其他措施，另一方面却不愿对以色列采取类似行动，尽管以色列在加沙地带持续进行种族灭绝，并在被占领的巴勒斯坦领土上暴力事件频发，这之间存在着明显的矛盾。

分歧不仅在于成员国如何看待以巴冲突，更在于欧盟应采取哪些切实可行的措施。爱尔兰和其他一些国家的政府力主采取更强有力的措施，包括对参与定居者暴力活动的个人采取行动，以及限制与以色列非法定居点相关的贸易，而其他一些成员国则不愿支持此类提议。

乌克兰问题上的分歧

在第一天的会谈中，乌克兰占据了主导地位，基辅方面继续呼吁欧洲提供更大的军事支持。

俄罗斯对乌克兰的全面入侵已进入第五年，莫斯科不断升级对乌克兰城市和基础设施的无人机和导弹袭击。

在俄罗斯无人机持续袭击数月之后，基辅再次敦促欧洲各国政府提供额外的防空系统。

然而，部长们再次未能弥合分歧。

希腊和西班牙仍然反对使用欧盟共同资金为进一步购买防空系统提供资金，这使得乌克兰未能获得其希望通过此次会议获得的额外导弹和拦截器。

会谈间隙，乌克兰外长安德烈·西比哈直接向欧洲媒体发出呼吁，警告称，随着俄罗斯加强空袭行动，延迟提供军事援助将付出越来越大的代价。但这番言论似乎并未起到太大作用。

乌克兰问题也暴露了欧盟内部另一条长期存在的裂痕。

波兰、瑞典、丹麦和荷兰再次呼吁利用冻结的俄罗斯主权资产为乌克兰的军事行动提供资金，而持有这些资产最大份额的比利时再次抵制了这一提议，理由是存在尚未解决的法律和财务问题。

更广泛的安全挑战

与此同时，部长们也将注意力转向了更广泛的中东地区。

美国和以色列对伊朗的战争已经持续了七个月，尽管这场冲突直接影响到欧洲大陆，包括对即将到来的冬季能源安全的担忧，但欧洲各国政府的外交影响力却十分有限。

黎巴嫩的未来也成为讨论的焦点，该国持续遭受以色列的攻击。部长们正在考虑欧盟是否有可能派遣特派团训练黎巴嫩军队，因为联合国驻黎巴嫩临时部队（联黎部队）的任务期限将于今年结束。

另据报道，8 月 30 日，在地中海活动的欧盟部队登上了一艘被怀疑与俄罗斯所谓的“影子舰队”有关的油轮，这是欧洲为执行对莫斯科的制裁并阻止其规避制裁的企图而采取的更广泛行动的一部分。

内部压力持续存在

如果说外部危机还不够糟糕的话，部长们还要处理一些内部危机。

就在会晤前一天，意大利因与西班牙在移民和边境管制问题上的争端，再次加强了对来自西班牙旅客的空中和陆路检查。马德里方面随即采取了对等措施作为回应。

此前，大量移民涌入西班牙位于北非的飞地休达，之后意大利对一些来自西班牙的旅客实施了额外的检查，由此引发了这场争端。

西班牙外交大臣何塞·曼努埃尔·阿尔瓦雷斯敦促其他成员国支持马德里在边境措施上的立场，同时批评那些在休达危机期间未能支持西班牙的政府。

周三为期两天的会议结束后，部长们离开时所说的内容与之前大同小异。

卢森堡副首相兼外交大臣泽维尔·贝特尔在会上表示：“我们就像一条只会吠叫而不会咬人的狗”，他对缺乏对制裁以色列的支持感到失望。

会后，欧盟基本上回到了会前的状态——虽然有很多共同的担忧，但实际行动却寥寥无几。一致同意原则仍然是欧盟的阿喀琉斯之踵——必须所有人都同意，这意味着实际上几乎什么都做不成。