Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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46. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will request the European Commission to start the process of suspending the EU-Israel Trade Agreement. [51090/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Ireland’s trade relations with Israel are governed by a Free Trade Agreement as part of an overarching EU-Israel Association Agreement, which came into force in June 2000. The Association Agreement aims to provide an appropriate legal and institutional framework for political dialogue and economic cooperation between the EU and Israel.

It is important to note that the Free Trade Agreement does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied territories, namely the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The overarching Agreement with Israel established the EU-Israel Association Council as the appropriate forum for raising all matters of mutual interest, including disputes between the EU and Israel. At the Association Council in October 2022, the EU restated its position that all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU do not apply to territory occupied by Israel in 1967. Any action to suspend elements of the Association Agreement would require the support of a qualified majority of EU Member States. Member States cannot act unilaterally in this regard.

Furthermore, it is my view that any process undertaken which seeks to suspend or upend the application of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement would only serve to undermine EU and Irish Government efforts to broker a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Therefore, our focus at this moment in time, working in the UN, the EU and directly with Israel is to support an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, and a significant scaling up of humanitarian access and supplies to get vital aid to civilians.