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Brussels Pulse: Israel-EU Association Agreement Suspension Talks and EU sanctions takes forefront for the S&D Group Foreign Policy Agenda
As Israel enters its first general election since the October 7th attacks on Israel by Hamas and its political and military allies within the Gaza Strip, the European Parliament’s second largest political group, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) Group, convened on the 9th September to discuss a new roadmap in the European Parliament’s foreign policy approach towards the Middle East region. The S&D Group President and MEP Iratxe Garcia Perez focused her speech on the proposed measure in the European Parliament directed to the EU Commission to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and a formal disengagement of Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. Her words in this regard were echoed by the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Albares Bueno, who formally endorsed the United Kingdom’s recent decision to sanction Israeli products originating from the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Spain itself has already sanctioned. The foreign minister also endorsed the formal inclusion of the Palestinian Authority, led by the Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, into the Gaza Board of Peace, as well as being given formal security roles in the Gaza peacekeeping force through the inclusion of the Palestinian police and security forces. In this, both policymakers designated Gaza as a key factor in the reconstruction of Palestinian statehood, with full control over Gaza being formally given to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The EU-Israel Association Agreement Suspension Talks: Israeli privileged market access in jeopardy
In both speeches made by the group president and the Spanish foreign minister, special attention was given to the EU-Israel association agreement in contention. Currently, the association agreement between the two parties grants privileged market access for Israeli companies into the EU common market alongside further privileged access to education and research and development funds for Israeli universities and companies. In both speeches, policymakers remarked that the EU member states still had not reached a formal consensus on the suspension of the agreement, with staunch opposition to the suspension coming especially from Germany. The foreign minister, in his statement on the issue of a push for consensus within the EU member states and on the implementation of sanctions, further stated that Norway, Ireland, Slovenia, France, the UK, Australia and Canada have already recognised the PA as the official State of Palestine and its representative in the international organisations such as the United Nations, effectively signifying the legitimacy of Palestinian statehood within the EU member states and partners. In their final remarks, both the group president Perez and the foreign minister also called for additional sanctions on Israel, including harsher sanctions on Israeli settler communities in the West Bank and restrictions on weapons sales to Israel.
The Spanish Effect: How Spain and its social democratic government leads the charge against Israel in the EU and is becoming a model for the wider European centre-left
The calls for sanctions and the suspension of the EU-Israel association agreement have been a key pillar of Spain’s foreign policy under its socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez. This is the case as the key EU and NATO member state has been leading the charge within the European Union and the wider European centre-left through the Party of European Socialists, with its prime minister Pedro Sanchez and its government being referred to as a model for other centre-left parties within the EU to emulate in terms of its left-populist policies. Especially in the case of its relationship with Israel alongside its diplomatic support for the State of Palestine, or otherwise known as the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has helped the Spanish government garner international praise and project its soft power as a defender of international law. In this regard, ‘the Spanish Effect’ can indeed be seen in the willingness of many other European countries' centre-left and left-wing governments to follow the example of Spain. Such examples recently also included the United Kingdom. The recently inaugurated prime minister of the UK, Andy Burnham, supported his foreign minister Ed Miliband’s decision to implement sanctions on Israeli products coming from the West Bank, alongside joining other European nations such as France, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Armenia, Slovenia, Portugal, Monaco, Luxembourg, Andorra, San Marino and Malta in recognising the State of Palestine during Keir Starmer’s government.
However, Sanchez government’s popularity did not just stem from their policy towards Israel, with their ambitious residency and work permit policy towards illegal immigrants that resulted in one million migrants applying for the one-year residency permit scheme that initially had aimed for five hundred thousand migrants, with currently six hundred and eight thousand migrants already being granted provisional work and residency permits until the processing is finalised according to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration of Spain, fuelling its economic growth rates that outpaced Eurozone growth for 2025 with a 2.8% growth rate. Further increases in social housing, bans on Airbnb homes in tourist hotspot cities such as Barcelona and a less expedient budget increase policy for its defence budget in line with the NATO 5% minimum defence spending rate are all factors that contributed to its popularity.
As for the vigour of the government, the energetic, relatively young and photogenic prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, has been rocked by major corruption scandals that included illegal party funding by his own political party and a use of state funding scandal involving his wife. The incumbent prime minister has kept his seat despite leading a minority government coalition in a confidence and supply agreement with 24 members of parliament belonging to Basque and Catalan minor regionalist parties, as he survived a no-confidence vote in June 2026 with 177 MP’s voting for no confidence against 171 MP’s supporting the prime minister.
Despite the non-binding nature of the vote itself, it remains a stark reminder to the prime minister that his political future, despite his international popularity, will not depend solely on his Israel policy or the projection of soft power based on the defence of international law. Spain has recently been rocked by a new wave of illegal migration from Morocco surrounding the Spanish enclave territory of Melilla, which its neighbour, Morocco, has claimed for its own, which could embolden the Spanish far-right Vox party to increase its votes enough to pressure the right-wing conservative People’s Party into a coalition with it after the 2027 elections if the will of the Spanish populace decides that prime minister Sanchez’s premiership has run its course.
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