Brussels puts trade ban with Israeli settlements on the table

BRUSSELS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 09th Jul, 2026) Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has sent legal options to EU governments for tightening restrictions or preventing trade with Israeli settlements.

The EU executive has laid out several options to further restrict EU imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, after a majority of EU foreign ministers called for clarifying what restrictive trade measures could be taken during a meeting in June.

The proposals come after a majority of member states urged the EU executive to propose tighter trading restrictions in response to the continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

An "options paper" circulated by the European Commission to EU member states on Wednesday, and seen by Euronews, outlines three measures to further tighten restrictions on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements, which are already excluded from preferential EU tariff treatment.

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They include a full or partial ban on the import of settlement-made products but also stricter export licenses, as well as prohibitive tariffs. EU ambassadors are expected to provide their initial feedback in a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Friday before EU foreign ministers gather for further discussions on Monday.

The first option would require companies importing goods from Israeli settlements to apply for an export license, which was among the solutions pitched by the French and Swedish governments in a joint letter to the European Commission in April.

Secondly, the Commission has proposed introducing higher tariffs to make the import of goods from settlements prohibitively expensive, but acknowledges that this option is also vulnerable to circumvention methods.

The third option is a full or partial ban on imports from illegal settlements, which would require customs officers in national authorities to identify goods from Israeli settlements at the EU borders.