Taoiseach Simon Harris has written to the Attorney General to seek fresh legal advice on the trade agreement between the EU and Israel, after calling for the agreement to be suspended.
Mr Harris and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez earlier this year asked European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to review whether Tel Aviv was in breach of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is conditional on respect for human rights, given the vast civilian death toll in Gaza.
It comes after Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that Ireland will cease purchases of Israeli military equipment while ongoing contracts will also be put under review.
Mr Harris said on Friday that people may be asking how the Government could take this action but not take action on the EU-Israel agreement, and this further prompted his decision to ask for fresh legal advice.
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The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner but there is no consensus, as of yet, on suspending the favourable terms under which that trade takes place.
“Yesterday the Government made the appropriate decision to cease the practice of allowing any defence material or equipment be purchased from Israel. We did so grounded in the ruling of the ICJ earlier this summer. I have always said consistently that it is really appropriate and important that all countries and indeed the European Union use all levers at their disposal to push for a ceasefire,” Mr Harris said on Friday.
“It’s not enough to say ‘I want a ceasefire’, you have to look at everything a country, and indeed the European Union, can do to create that environment in which a ceasefire becomes an inevitability because the humanitarian catastrophe cannot be allowed to continue.”
“Myself and the Spanish prime minister continue to lead the charge that the European Union should review the association trade agreement between the EU and Israel.
“I welcome the fact that a number of other member states support that position. I continue to advocate for it everywhere I go, including in my meeting with the French president in Paris this week. But today in light of the ICJ ruling this summer, I have written to the Attorney General to ask for fresh advice in relation to the broader issue of trade at an EU level, at an Irish level, where the competencies lie, and if anything has changed in relation to previous advice as a result of that ICJ ruling.”
He said that trade is an EU competency, but he wants the updated legal advice before an upcoming European Council summit so that he can be prepared.
“In the midst of one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our lifetime, where children are dying and being maimed on a daily basis, where the world food programme cannot properly function, where we are seeing aid reduced and conflict spreading ... it is really appropriate that all governments including the Irish Government continue to probe what more can be done.”
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