War in the Middle East: Spain will ask the European Union to break its association agreement with

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Sunday that his government would submit a proposal on Tuesday to end the association agreement between Brussels and Israel, which came into effect in 2000.

The pressure is mounting on Brussels. Spain will ask the European Union to terminate its association agreement with Israel, deeming that its government “violates international law,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Sunday, April 19, during a meeting in Andalusia. “This Tuesday, the Spanish government will submit a proposal to Europe” to end this agreement, which came into effect in 2000 and includes a clause linking the relationship to respect for human rights, he declared. For the Socialist Prime Minister, a country “that violates international law (…) cannot be a partner of the European Union.”

Spain first questioned this association agreement with Israel in February 2024 when Pedro Sanchez and the then Irish Prime Minister sent a joint letter to the European Commission. Since then, Pedro Sanchez has gradually hardened his position on this issue, particularly with the war in Lebanon. On Friday, Ireland, Slovenia, and Spain sent a letter requesting that “the EU-Israel association agreement be examined at the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council.”