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 “It should not have withdrawn the retaliatory tariffs from the fifth of April," she said.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 – a EU-backed loan fund to finance military procurement by member states.
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.
