(Brussels) “Following the announcement made by President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech, today the EU Commission is presenting to the EU Council its proposal for suspending some trade conditions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement as well as its proposals for sanctions against Hamas, extremist ministers and violent settlers”. In the press room of the Berlaymont building in Brussels, it is up to the High Representative Kaja Kallas to illustrate the Executive’s proposals that now need to have the approval of the Council (member States). The EU Commission would also like to put on hold its bilateral support to Israel, except for its support to civilians and Yad Vashem. Basically, this would affect the future yearly concessions from 2025 to 2027, as well as the institutional cooperation projects that are going on in Israel and the projects funded by the EU-Israel regional instrument. Such proposals follow on a review of Israel’s compliance with Article 2 of the Association Agreement, as it was “found that the acts committed by the Israeli government are a breach of certain key terms regarding respect for human rights and democratic principles. This authorises the EU to suspend the Agreement unilaterally”.