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European Commission to review EU-Israel partnership after 1.1m-signature petition
The European Commission has pledged to examine a citizens’ initiative calling for the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement after it collected more than 1.1 million verified signatures. Brussels has until May 2027 to announce whether it will take any action.
The European Commission announced Thursday that it would examine a citizens’ initiative calling for the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement after it collected more than 1.1 million verified signatures from 12 member states, exceeding the threshold required for an official review. The initiative is titled “Calling for the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in light of Israel’s violations of human rights.”
“The Commission will meet with the organisers to discuss the initiative in detail in the coming weeks, after which the European Parliament will hold a public hearing,” the Commission said in a statement. Under the rules of the European Citizens’ Initiative, the Commission has six months to respond, meaning until May 2027, to clarify whether it will take any steps in response to the demand.
The left alliance behind the campaign
The petition is backed by the European Left Alliance, an umbrella group comprising 11 left-wing parties. It argues that the EU should suspend trade and political dialogue with Israel over what it considers Israel’s failure to prevent genocide in Gaza, Politico reported. France led the signatories with 339,479 signatures, followed by Italy with 283,863 and Spain with 151,821.
Supporters of the initiative gathered outside the Berlaymont building, the Commission’s headquarters in Brussels, raising Palestinian flags as they submitted the signatures. Addressing the crowd, French MEP Manon Aubry, co-president of the Left group in the European Parliament, said: “To all EU institutions: democracy is asking you to act.”
This is the 15th initiative to reach the threshold of one million signatures and be referred to the Commission, out of 136 initiatives registered over more than a decade. Euronews reported that it was the fastest initiative in the mechanism’s history to reach one million signatures.
What happens next?
The mechanism requires the Commission to examine every initiative signed by more than one million citizens from at least seven member states, but it does not require the Commission to adopt its demands. Politico assessed that the review is unlikely to bring about a fundamental change in the current situation. However, the number of signatures reflects the importance of relations with Israel in European public opinion and obliges the Commission to issue an official response.
The Association Agreement was signed in 1995 and entered into force in 2000. It is the main legal framework for political dialogue and trade between the two sides. The European Union is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for about one-third of its goods trade with the world in 2025. Euronews noted that member states such as Germany continued to block efforts to suspend the agreement, while the wars in Gaza and Lebanon sparked widespread criticism of Israel and divisions among European leaders.
Photos: Euronews (Gaia Neyman), Wikimedia Commons
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