The Belgian government has approved a ban on imports of products from Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the Golan Heights.
This decision on Friday was adopted in the final days of the parliamentary session, before the summer recess.
The measure was originally put forward last year but, according to EU affairs news website Euractiv, its implementation had been stalled for several months due to internal political disagreements.
At this stage, Belgian authorities have not specified the concrete details of this ban, nor the categories of products affected.
This decision comes as the European Union is also considering the possibility of adopting EU-wide trade restrictions on products from Israeli communities located beyond the Green Line and in the Golan Heights. Last week, the ambassadors of the 27 member states debated this issue but failed to reach an agreement.
EU member states remain divided on this topic, as they do on several issues related to Israel, with Spain, Ireland, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Sweden pushing for such a measure while others including Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic opposing it.
“The option that got the most support was banning trade with illegal settlements,” said earlier this week EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels.
The popular option was a “full ban”, she said. ”We tasked the EU ambassadors to take this forward and we will probably have an extraordinary meeting on this,” she added.
There is a also a divergence of interpretation between thne European Commission and the EU’s Council of Ministers on whether a trade ban should be approved by unanimity or qualified majority vote. The EU Commission considers that this measure , while related to trade, is a political sanction that requires unanimity among the 27 member states.