The EU is hosting the Palestinian Authority and donor states on Thursday as it seeks to avoid being sidelined in the US-led postwar Gaza plans.
The conference's main goal will be to “give the PA the possibility to express itself”, according to an official. “One of the main points is giving the Palestinians a voice,” the official said. Participants would “take stock” of reforms on offer from the PA in exchange for financial support from the EU, the official added.
There has been intense US-led diplomatic activity this week, including the vote of a UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza, while the EU falls back on its traditional role as a provider of financial support.
Nearly two years into the war, the European Commission in September put forward proposals to impose sanctions on Israel after concluding months earlier that it had violated a human rights clause enshrined in their relations.
Opinions align
But the Gaza ceasefire agreement struck a month later by US President Donald Trump sidelined talks of sanctions. EU states instead embraced the Trump plan.
“Before this plan was on the table, the discussions in the council were quite difficult,” a senior EU diplomat said. “Now, you see suddenly … much more of a convergence of opinions on what the EU can do to make this plan a success.”
EU states that have been the most hesitant to level criticism against Israel, such as Germany, were also the quickest to embrace the Trump plan, said Isaias Barrenada Bajo, international relations professor at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain.
“This support can be explained by their hope to return to prewar dynamics in their relations to Israel and in the financial support to the PA. It keeps it alive but without deeper political engagement,” Mr Bajo said.
EU senior leadership regularly claimed that the bloc wants to be “a player, not a payer” in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
However, the EU is historically deeply divided on the matter.
Former EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell recently described it as split into two camps: core central European nations support Israel and countries such as Spain and Ireland that have demanded but failed to obtain consensus on applying international law in support of Gaza.
These divisions mean the bloc has never taken a unified stance on the Gaza war and accusations that Israel has committed war crimes, despite UN reports and the International Court of Justice saying that there is a risk of genocide.
Transitional administration
The UN Security Council resolution adopted on Monday on Gaza, which was passed by 13-0, lays out plans for a US-steered transitional administration and an international stabilisation force. The resolution has been hailed as the only diplomatic initiative that has had an impact on the ground in Gaza, but has been criticised by academics such as Mr Bajo for failing to respect fundamental rights for Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the resolution but National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for assassination of PA officials if concrete steps are taken towards a Palestinian state.
The EU is not expected to play a role in the international stabilisation force, which could include troops from Egypt, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Pakistan. But it is represented by about 10 diplomatic, police and military staff at the US-led civil-military co-ordination centre in Israel near Gaza, which hosts about 200 US military personnel.
The EU “has to be able to talk with the Americans”, so chose to send somebody from the EU military staff, the EU official said. About 20 nations and 25 charities are also represented.
Familiar strategy
Bringing attention to the EU's support for the PA at Thursday's conference – which will be co-chaired by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa – must be set against two years of war in Gaza, said Michelle Pace, professor at the department of social sciences and business at Roskilde University in Denmark.
“The EU has shown that certain international norms only apply to certain groups of people,” Prof Pace told The National. “They will not absolve themselves by being part of this so called donor group.”
Analysts have also been critical of the EU's eagerness to perpetuate the framework in place for the past decades, which has been summarised by researcher Anne Le More as “the US decides, the World Bank leads, the EU pays and the UN feeds”.
“The problem is that it has not worked,” said Dimitris Bouris, associate professor and Jean Monnet chairman at the University of Amsterdam.
“After the Oslo Accords, the EU spent more than €500 million [$575 million] a year to help the PA build its own institutions. Money is not the problem. The problem is tackling the structural aspects of the illegal Israeli occupation,” Mr Bouris said, referring to a 2024 International Court of Justice advisory opinion. “Money does not buy peace.”
The Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks against Israel killed about 1,200 people. Israel's subsequent offensive killed almost 70,000 Palestinians, with more than 260 dead since the October ceasefire.
Training locals
EU diplomats point to the bloc's proposal to train up to 3,000 Palestinian policemen to be posted in Gaza when the situation is stable. “We have a very important role to play here and add value and experience. That is important for all parties including the Americans,” a senior EU official said.
About 60 state representatives have been invited to Thursday's meeting. “We have indication that we'll have at least vice minister representation from Saudi Arabia,” another EU official said.
A Palestinian diplomatic source told The National that the PA was going to Brussels offering reforms to secure the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state under Palestinian leadership.
They also highlighted the EU's role in pressuring Israel to release withheld taxes. “The Israelis have to do their job. They have to give us our money,” they added.
The bloc's foreign affairs chief, Kaja Kallas, has told The National that the bloc deserves a seat on Mr Trump's future “board of peace” for Gaza due to its important role in supporting the PA, and must “adapt to an age of transactionalism”.
Whether it will obtain that seat remains unclear. “President Trump was waiting for the UN Security Resolution to be adopted before starting to discuss the composition of the board of peace,” the first EU official said. “So for the moment, we are not in, but nobody is in, apart from President Trump.”
