European Union foreign ministers remain divided on the action to take over Israel’s offensive in Gaza. On an August 30 gathering in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, ministers from the E.U.’s 27 member states discussed potential actions over the situation in Gaza, which has killed over 65,000 people since October 2023. Israel’s offensive, which experts have described as a genocide, has led to massive protests in cities across Europe in order to pressure their governments into taking further action.
“More and more people across Europe say that the E.U. failed to deliver on the promises it made when it comes to the protection of humanitarian law and human rights,” said Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra while reporting from Copenhagen during the talks, adding that the E.U. has “huge political and financial leverage over Israel”. The E.U. is Israel’s largest trading partner; according to the E.U., trade in goods between the two amounted to 42.6 billion euros ($49.9 billion) last year. Whilst E.U. governments have become increasingly critical of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, particularly the scale of civilian casualties and the blocking of humanitarian aid, many are unwilling to take decisive action.
“It’s clear that member states disagree on how to get the Israeli government to change course,” said E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas before talks began. “If you don’t have a unified voice … on this topic, we don’t have a voice on the global scene. So that’s definitely very problematic,” she said. Countries such as Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands have called for the suspension of an E.U. free trade pact with Israel, whilst Germany and Hungary have rejected stronger action. “If the E.U. does not act as a collective now and take sanctions against Israel, whenever will it? What more could it possibly take? Children are starving,” said Irish Foreign Minister Simon Harris. Before the meeting began, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told Al Jazeera, “the time of declaration[s] is really over. We have to move forward.”
The meeting, as predicted, ended with no clear path or decision regarding actions to be taken on the issue. Since Israel’s offensive on Gaza began, Palestinian civilians have faced bombardment, repeated displacement, the collapse of civilian infrastructure, and repeated interruptions of access to critical humanitarian aid and food. In August 2025, an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (I.P.C.) analysis confirmed that portions of Gaza’s population are trapped in famine, after repeated calls from organizations such as the United Nations World Food Programme (W.F.P.) and the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) regarding the escalating hunger-related deaths and rates of malnutrition in Gaza’s population. In a report released at the end of August, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (I.A.G.S), the world’s leading association of genocide scholars, declared that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. A lack of decisive action and nearly unconditional continued support from Israel’s main allies, including the United States and the E.U., has allowed for this to continue.
The genocide in Gaza has been enabled by the complicity of the West, particularly the United States and many countries in Europe, which have provided extensive aid and support to Israel’s government as it continues to violate international law. This latest non-consensus is representative of the broader failure to act as Israel continuously violates international humanitarian law nearly unchecked. Immediate measures, including targeted economic sanctions and arms embargoes, must be taken in order to work to end the offensive and civilian suffering in Gaza. Empty statements about the importance of respecting international norms whilst taking no further action are not a solution. The consequences of this inaction will continue to be devastating.
