A European Citizens Initiative (ECI) launched in January by the European Left Alliance has reached and surpassed the 1 million signatures required to legally obligate Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to consider it. The ECI has garnered supporters from ten EU countries, three more than the required seven.
The ECI calls on the European Union to fully suspend the EU–Israel Association Agreement—an agreement on free trade and political dialogue signed in 1995 and updated several times since. The initiative also calls for sanctions against Israel for “an unprecedented level of killing and injury to civilians” and for failing to “prevent the crime of genocide.”
In September 2025, the EU Commission deemed the agreement’s human rights clause to have been violated, leading the body to propose revoking Israel’s favored trade status and sanctioning certain Israeli government ministers and violent settlers. A blocking minority of member states (including Germany, Italy, Hungary, and the Czech Republic) prevented the European Council from adopting the proposal in late 2025.
For previous EICs that have reached the million mark, the outcome has often been limited to a policy communication, a public hearing in the European Parliament, or a partial revision of existing legislation. Questions have also been raised about how much of ‘citizens’ initiatives’ EICs really are and how much they are just another vehicle for NGOs to push their agendas, giving the illusion of citizen input.
The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, accounting for 32% of Israel’s imports in goods and 28.8% of its exports in 2024. Total bilateral trade reached €42.6 billion in 2024, with the EU chalking up a trade surplus of about €10.8 billion—the EU exporting €26.7 billion worth of goods and importing €15.9 billion.
