Israel is increasingly becoming a flashpoint for clashes over who dictates the EU’s foreign policy between the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, and the rest of the Commission, undermining its overall coherence.
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On Monday, Euronews revealed that Dubravka Šuica, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, was travelling to Israel.
The Commission’s spokesperson later said the trip had been long in the making, but it had not been announced on the Commissioner’s dedicated webpage, and caught several European capitals off guard.
Chief spokesperson Paula Pinho could not explain why the trip had not been properly communicated, saying only that “they will look into that.”
The trip came right after Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, severed all contact with Kallas, following media reports alleging she had compared the country to apartheid-era South Africa.
The trip had indeed been planned before that row erupted, but Kallas’ team questioned the timing of the visit, given what had happened just days before and conveyed the importance of staying united, Euronews can confirm.
During a press point on Monday, Sa’ar effectively took a swipe at Kallas, prompting several EU diplomats to reproach Šuica for not sticking up to defend her colleague.
“What a fine display of ‘solidarity and coordination’ in the EU,” Josep Borrell, the previous EU foreign policy chief, wrote on X. Borrell, who preceded Kallas in his post, clashed multiple times with von der Leyen over Israel.
Independent initiatives
This is not the first time Šuica has gone her own way, breaking with the EU’s chief diplomat and with capitals to pursue independent foreign policy initiatives.
She was also the only EU institutional representative to join the Board of Peace, US President Donald Trump’s peacebuilding initiative for Gaza, which most EU countries boycotted, seeing it as a rival to the United Nations.
According to several EU diplomats who spoke to Euronews on condition of anonymity, these are not personal initiatives but part of a wider push by the Commission to seize control of foreign policy.
“Šuica has [European Commission President] von der Leyen’s backing to take these initiatives. That’s no secret,” an EU diplomat said. “The question is what damage that does.”
A second diplomat said that the trip sends a message to Kallas, “that von der Leyen does not need her.”
The EU’s diplomatic service has come under growing pressure as von der Leyen has systematically expanded the Commission’s reach into geopolitics.
Earlier this month, selective media reports suggested key member states were considering clipping the wings of the European External Action Service (EEAS) altogether — when that was just one option on the table, alongside strengthening the high representative’s role.
Diverging policies
Israel is perhaps the one issue where such competition for setting the foreign policy agenda emerges most clearly.
MEP Hildegard Bentele (EPP/Germany), chair of the EU-Israel delegation, welcomed the fact that Kallas was not the only one in charge of external relations.
“Instead of disturbing rhetoric about Israel from HRVP Kallas, I appreciate and fully support the responsible, practical, constructive and open approach of Commissioner Šuica,” Bentele told Euronews.
By contrast, most EU countries, and Kallas on their behalf, have piled pressure on the Commission to bring forward trade restrictions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The Commission is clearly practising obstructionism on any measures against Israel,” said MEP Lucia Annunziata (S&D/Italy), also a member of the EU-Israel delegation, citing the lengthy discussions on the suspension of the association agreement.
“Things are now slowly moving, probably because of pressure from the member states,” she added.
Last week, EU leaders endorsed a statement calling on the Commission to present options before the next meeting of foreign affairs ministers on 13 July.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Commission spokesperson for trade Olof Gill said he would not “speculate” on what these options would entail.
A feature, not a bug
Diplomatic sources point out that these tensions between the Commission and the EEAS are not about one commissioner but are structural.
In particular, Šuica’s Directorate-General for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf (DG MENA) was set up at the start of this Commission’s term precisely to absorb foreign policy competences.
Thus, the role of the Mediterranean Commissioner seems meant to compete with the EEAS’ own turf, allowing the EU executive to step into foreign policy matters when it feels the time is right to exert independent diplomatic actions.
“The Commissioner has a portfolio of her own, and must be able to work on her topics,” a third diplomat said, recognising that these questions were taken away from the EEAS at the beginning of the mandate.
However, there are also those who underline that the overall effect is to undermine the bloc’s coherence in the delicate foreign policy sphere, already a difficult terrain on which European governments are seldom fully aligned.
As one put it: “If you want coherence, you have to work for it.”
