Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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56. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade whether he intends to take legal action in respect of the failure of the EU to implement sanctions against Israel for ongoing breeches of international law. [37568/25]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Sanctions are an important tool to promote the objectives of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy in response to breaches of international law including international humanitarian law and human rights.

I welcome that the European Union has adopted successive rounds of sanctions against violent Israeli settlers under its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, in April and in July last year.

Instances of settler violence have intensified in recent months. It is vital that the perpetrators of these crimes are held to account.

The European Council has invited the Council to take work forward on further restrictive measures against extremist settlers and against entities and organisations which support them.

Ireland is strongly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy and activities, including in and around East Jerusalem. Ireland continues to call for the imposition of further EU sanctions against violent settlers, a call I reiterated at the Foreign Affairs Council on 23 June.

More broadly, the situation in Gaza and in the West Bank was at the centre of discussions at the June Foreign Affairs Council. I welcome that the review of Israel’s compliance with its obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement has been finalised. Ireland and Spain first called for this step in February 2024. I have been clear with my EU counterparts that we now need to see options for follow-up actions. I also recently joined nine other EU Ministers in writing to High Representative Kallas to call for the EU to undertake a detailed review of its compliance with the July 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice. Ireland has been calling for this work for some time and will continue to seek action.