Europe loses patience with Israel
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Welcome to the Capitals by Eddy Wax, with Nicoletta Ionta. Feedback is welcome.
Were you forwarded this newsletter by a friend? Sign up here.
In today's edition:
- EU edges toward Israel sanctions - A rough landing for the US-EU deal - China rips MEPs over Taiwan - Steel safeguards to hit EFTA states - Last day to claim defence money In the capital
For more than two years, most EU countries stood by Israel's side as it waged war on Hamas in Gaza – even as civilian casualties soared. Now, with harrowing images of starvation and devastation circulating globally, Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government is rapidly losing friends.
In what could become the EU's first formal sanctions against Israel since 7 October, commissioners yesterday backed a proposal to exclude Israeli companies from a portion of the bloc's Horizon Europe research programme, specifically the part that funds defence and dual-use technologies, including military startups.
The measure reflects a loss of patience among EU capitals over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This afternoon, ambassadors in Brussels will discuss the proposal, which still requires approval by a qualified majority, meaning 55% of member states representing two-thirds of the bloc's population.
While Israel's foreign ministry has vowed to fight the move, claiming it 'only serves to strengthen Hamas,' even some of its closest allies are shifting. Dutch PM Dick Schoof said the Netherlands would back the proposal if Israel is found to be in breach of the programme's rules.
The turnaround in Brussels has been swift. Just two weeks ago, the Commission was promoting a new aid deal with Israel, and member states had not coalesced around any of the sanction options floated by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
But on Monday, Commissioner Dubravka Šuica conceded that the agreement had only been 'partially implemented,' blaming the failure on unsafe conditions for distribution.
The EU now expects that "Israel will cooperate to ensure humanitarian aid delivery," she added.
Germany will start airlifting aid into the Gaza Strip to help improve the dire humanitarian situation, Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Monday, while also refusing to rule out the introduction of sanctions against Israel.
Even Germany, Israel's staunchest ally in Europe, is hardening its position. This week, Chancellor Friedrich Merz pointedly did not rule out suspending the EU-Israel trade agreement after a Gaza-focused security cabinet meeting. He confirmed that France, the UK, and Germany are weighing a joint foreign ministers' trip to Israel.
Diplomatic heat is also rising outside Europe. France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a United Nations conference in New York, aimed at driving political momentum behind the "two-state solution" that Israel firmly opposes. Ten EU countries already recognise Palestinian statehood – with Spain, Ireland and Slovenia doing so during the ongoing war. France recently said it will follow in September, issuing a stinging rebuke to Israel, even if it carries little practical weight.
The US State Department dismissed the conference as a 'stunt that will further embolden Hamas.' Israel is also not participating.
Ahead of the gathering, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the first elections since 2006 will be held in the coming year, and called on Hamas to disarm – declaring that a future Palestinian state would be demilitarised.
In the European Parliament, attention is shifting to the West Bank. After Israel's Knesset passed a non-binding resolution supporting annexation, 58 MEPs sent a letter to EU leadership urging 'meaningful actions' in response.
Read more about Europe's shifting stance on Gaza from our Berlin correspondent Nick Alipour.
A rough landing for the EU-US trade deal
No one is celebrating the framework agreement between the EU and US. French PM François Bayrou called it "submission," Spain's Pedro Sánchez offered only faint praise, and Merz warned the deal would cause considerable damage to Germany's economy.
Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who flew to Washington 10 times to negotiate the agreement, hinted that keeping the US aligned on Ukraine was part of the calculus. And right on cue, Donald Trump stood beside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday and declared that Russia had just "10 or 12 days" to end the war.
In an interview with The Capitals, former EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said the bloc had made a 'mistake' by failing to strike back in earlier trade talks – particularly when Trump imposed tariffs on EU steel and aluminium. 'It should not have withdrawn the retaliatory tariffs from the fifth of April," she said.
Malmström argued the EU had failed to absorb key lessons from Trump's first term, when she and former Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker struck a mini-deal to ease tensions.
'We should have learned from the personality of President Trump: he respects strength, he despises weakness, and we should have been tougher from the beginning.'
Still, she acknowledged the Commission was under heavy pressure from key industries in Germany and Italy to avoid a full-blown trade war.
Asymmetry locked in
Bernd Lange, the European Parliament's top trade MEP, didn't mince words. He called the deal 'asymmetry set in stone' and insisted the legislature must get a say before it proceeds through the system. For now, no one is quite sure what form the agreement will even take.
Details continued to trickle out on Monday. Pharmaceuticals will remain tariff-free for now, though a US probe into dependency on EU drug imports could upend that. Brussels has agreed to ease access for some US agricultural products like nuts, soybeans and bison meat, and to extend the 'lobster deal' from 2020. But EU agri-food exports are still subject to Trump's 15% tariff wall, Sofia Sanchez Manzanaro reports.
Catch up on what the deal means for energy, defence and tech in Euractiv's full breakdown. Also read former EU trade negotiator John Clark's brutal takedown of the deal.
China rips MEPs over Taiwan trip
Beijing has condemned last week's visit to Taiwan by a group of MEPs as a 'serious violation of the one-China principle' and 'blatant interference in China's internal affairs.' The trip, led by French centrist Nathalie Loiseau, included meetings with Taiwanese officials and civil society leaders – and coincided with the EU's China summit.
'China firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the European Parliament and the Taiwan authorities,' a spokesperson for China's EU mission said.
'We urge the European Parliament, as a core institution of the EU, to honour the EU's political commitments to China and immediately correct its wrongdoings.'
Beijing has long dissuaded other countries from recognising Taiwan as an independent state, by way of threats and coercion. While it considers the island a rebellious province, Taiwan operates as a self-governing democracy.
Keep your friends close...
The Commission has notified four European Free Trade Association countries – Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein – that it plans to impose tariffs on ferroalloys from 19 August to protect the EU steel industry, the organisation confirmed to Euractiv, following reports in Norway.
It's a diplomatic slap for the nations, especially Norway, that have scrambled to stay out of the EU-US trade crossfire.
'Norway is inside our single market and Norway will stay and remain inside our single market. This is crystal clear," von der Leyen had said in April, during a Brussels visit by Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre.
Last day to claim defence money
Today is the deadline for countries to signal their interest in tapping into the €150 billion SAFE programme – the largest EU-backed loan facility ever offered for arms purchases.
Governments are also expected to submit ballpark figures for how much they want. About 20 countries have already expressed interest in €100 billion of the fund, EU defence chief Andrius Kubilius told Euractiv last week. Poland alone is seeking as much as €25 billion and wants to work on joint projects with Ukraine. Read more. The Capitals
BERLIN | Germany faces a projected €172 billion budget shortfall for the 2027-2029 period, local media reported, citing government sources. The gap has widened by about €28 billion in recent weeks, driven by rising interest payments, economic stagnation, and internal compromises over costly tax relief plans. The Cabinet is expected to pass the government's draft budget for 2026 on Wednesday.
PARIS | Prime Minister François Bayrou slammed the new EU-US trade deal as a 'dark day' for Europe, accusing Brussels of bowing to US pressure. Read more.
ROME | The city council here has taken down a series of AI-generated billboards from Matteo Salvini's League party that promoted a controversial security bill, citing ethnic stereotypes and breaches of advertising standards. The posters depicted migrants, Roma people, and youth with dreadlocks. Salvini's party denounced the removal as 'communist censorship.'
MADRID | Spain will send thousands of kilos of food to Gaza by air, PM Pedro Sánchez announced Monday, in response to the urgent humanitarian crisis. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares added that 12 tons of aid will depart on 1 August, with trucks also awaiting approval to cross into the territory through Israel.
WARSAW | A new CBOS poll shows that 68% of Poles knew that the country held the EU Council presidency in the first half of 2025, but just 28% believed it delivered results. While views varied along party lines, support for EU membership remained strong, with 81% backing Poland's place in the bloc despite doubts about its influence while at the helm.
PRAGUE | Moldova has deported Czech MEP Ondřej Dostál over security concerns linked to a pro-Russian opposition conference. Dostál has criticised the move as politically motivated. Authorities also blocked other far-right figures from entering, citing ties to the criminal network of fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor and alleged Russian destabilisation efforts. Read more.
BUDAPEST | Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán mocked the EU-US trade deal as 'Trump eating von der Leyen for breakfast,' slamming the 15% levy. He also said the EU's $750 billion energy pledge and $600 billion in investments showed a weak hand at the negotiating table. Read more.
BRATISLAVA | Slovakia plans to build a €15 billion nuclear power plant with US firm Westinghouse without a public tender, citing efficiency concerns and regional precedent. The EU Commission is reviewing the move, which has drawn domestic criticism. Read more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euractiv
28 minutes ago
- Euractiv
Farmer protests could justify import bans under new EU-Ukraine deal
A revised trade deal between Brussels and Kyiv opens the door to legalising food import bans imposed by some EU countries, according to the legal text of the agreement. Details of the updated EU–Ukraine trade arrangement were published this week, more than a month after Brussels announced a deal had been reached – without releasing any accompanying documents at the time. The agreement grants Ukraine greater market access for certain agricultural products but stops short of the temporary full liberalisation offered in 2022 and extended into 2025 as part of the EU's economic support for the country after Russia's full-scale invasion. The EU is Ukraine's largest agricultural trading partner, absorbing more than half of its farm exports. The Ukrainian agribusiness estimates that losing tariff-free access could cost the country up to €3.5 billion annually. Crucially, the text allows either side to trigger safeguard measures if imports cause 'serious economic, societal, or environmental difficulties' at a regional or sectoral level. For the EU, such measures can be requested even if the disruption affects only one member state. In practice, this means farmer protests could be cited as a 'societal difficulty' to justify triggering the safeguards. Vague, vulnerable agreement Ukraine's agricultural sector, represented by UCAB, denounced the criteria as 'extremely vague' and 'vulnerable to political manipulation by protectionist farmer organizations and populist politicians.' 'Essentially, any member state can effectively suspend the agreement, most likely on its own territory,' said Nazar Bobitski, head of UCAB Brussels, in comments to Euractiv. He added that, de facto, the arrangement 'legalises unilateral import embargoes' which remain in place in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. 'This spells a very bad omen for any other EU trading partner, as it shows that the EU Internal Market is to a great extent an illusion,' he stressed. The European Commission did not provide comment at the time of publication. The measures, however, are not automatic. The text requires both sides to engage in consultations for up to one month to seek a 'mutually acceptable solution.' If talks fail, safeguards can be imposed. Another clause allows for immediate action in 'exceptional circumstances,' skipping consultations altogether. Increased agricultural imports from Ukraine – a global farming powerhouse – have fuelled discontent across several EU countries, particularly those bordering the war-torn nation, with farmers staging protests, claiming the influx is undercutting local prices and threatening their livelihoods. In Brussels, the Commission delayed finalising the agreement until after Poland's pivotal presidential election, which resulted in a far-right victory regardless of the outcome. The deal still needs to be ratified by a qualified majority of member states in the Council. (adm, aw)
Euractiv
29 minutes ago
- Euractiv
Commission publishes full list of AI companies signed up to Code of Practice
The Commission has published the full list of signatories to the EU's generative AI Code of Practice initiative so far – aka the Code of Practice for General Purpose AIs (GPAIs). Signing the Code is not a requirement under the bloc's AI Act but companies that commit to it voluntarily will be considered compliant with the legally binding rulebook, per the Commission. Several major AI developers had already made their approach to the Code public in the weeks after publication. But, per the (updatable) list published today, Amazon is also signing, along with a number of smaller AI providers. Notably absent at the time of writing are any Chinese AI companies, such as Alibaba, Baidu or Deepseek. It remains to be seen if that will change. But one refusenik is certain: US social media giant Meta previously publicly announced that it would not sign. Companies that do not sign the Code will still have to follow all the rules of the AI Act. And the Commission has already warned that they may face more scrutiny than those who agree to abide by the Code. France's Mistral and Germany's Aleph Alpha both previously announced they would sign up, as have US-based OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft. Elon Musk's xAI took a third option by announcing it will only sign the chapter on safety – decrying the rest of the Code as 'profoundly detrimental to innovation'. (The Code's three chapters cover commitments on transparency, copyright, and safety.) In the end, almost all major AI companies from the US and EU have signed up to the Code. That marks a victory for the Commission – but it will not end discussion about the EU's approach to regulating artificial intelligence. Microsoft, for example, pushed for the EU to simplify the AI Act when it announced that it would sign the Code. The Commission has also previously said its upcoming digital omnibus package will include the AI Act – though not to what extent. Unsurprisingly, given the sprawling range of interests around AI, the Code itself faced a lengthy and complicated drafting process, with more than a thousand participants involved. It was only finally presented by the Commission at the beginning of July, more than two months after the original deadline for publication. The Commission took until today, Friday August 1, to confirm that the Code satisfies its own requirements. (nl)
Euractiv
an hour ago
- Euractiv
EU Commission let ‘Pfizergate' texts disappear
The European Commission allowed key text messages between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer's CEO to vanish during COVID-19 vaccine talks, a letter to the New York Times reveals. The messages – central to the so-called 'Pfizergate' scandal – were exchanged in early 2021 between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, during negotiations over the bloc's largest vaccine deal. The New York Times has been requesting access to the messages since 2022 and won a court case against the Commission for refusing to release them. In its new answer, sent on July 28, the Commission continued to deny access to documents, the media revealed. According to the letter, Von der Leyen's chief of cabinet, Björn Seibert, read the messages 'in summer 2021' on the President's phone and decided not to retain them in a manner that would make them publicly accessible, the document shows. He established the texts were solely intended to schedule calls during the pandemic. Seibert's decision occurred specifically after the Commission was asked for transparency in a first May 2021 request for access to the texts issued by journalist Alexander Fanta. The Commission's letter also reveals that the messages have been missing since at least July 2023. Von der Leyen's phone was "replaced several times" without transferring any data, while older devices were wiped and recycled – meaning the Commission claims it can no longer retrieve the texts. Lack of transparency The controversy goes beyond the missing texts. At stake is the Commission's broader lack of transparency around the EU's largest vaccine deal. Key details, on the negotiation process but also on financial terms, remain undisclosed. Critics – including judges at the General Court of the European Court of Justice – argued that the decision to block access to the texts breached transparency obligations. In their May 2025 ruling, the judges specifically noted that the Commission must 'provide credible explanations enabling the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found,' particularly given the scale the EU's largest-ever contract. The Commission did not appeal the ruling but instead chose to build up a more solid legal reasoning to justify its renewed refusal to share the texts. The New York Times could challenge the Commission's decision in court again and wait a few more years to see if EU judges challenge it again. In the meantime, the texts are still nowhere to be found at the Commission. A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (cs)
