European Union

Today, the European Parliament adopted its position on the next EU long-term budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework. Its position called for an increased overall MFF budget, including for its external action, and supported proposals for EU own resources. In response, Hanna Saarinen, Oxfam EU Development Finance Policy Lead, said: “Today’s vote sent a clear signal to EU governments: Europe needs a bigger budget and new funding streams to back it up. 

Today, European Foreign Affairs Ministers discussed the situation in the Middle East, including Lebanon and Palestine. In response, Agnes Bertrand Sanz, Oxfam Humanitarian Expert, said:  “Discussions without action are meaningless. We have seen this pattern before – talk, delay, repeat. And in the meantime, Israel continues to kill, wound and displace people. What is needed now – and has been for a long time – is the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. 

We, the undersigned humanitarian and human rights organisations and trade unions, write to you as Israeli authorities escalate their brutal repression and illegal annexation policies in Palestine, and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Palestine and Lebanon to urge you to adopt the long-overdue measures proposed by President von der Leyen in September 2025, in particular the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, along with any additional steps necessary to comply with international law, including banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending all transfers and transit of arms to Israel.

A troubling idea has begun to circulate in European political circles: the idea that international law is exhausted. That it has little effect in today’s geopolitical world.  

This argument has surfaced in speeches of several European leaders. Most notably, in that of the European Commission’s President to EU Ambassadors last week. She is not alone, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz comments have raised similar questions. 

Ahead of the EU foreign affairs ministers meeting on Monday, Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s Policy Lead in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Gaza, said:  

“This fragile ceasefire is a start, but it is not the solution. For families in Gaza, words on paper mean very little unless aid reaches them, and not in symbolic trickles. What happens next and how the EU responds will be a defining test of Europe’s moral compass and political credibility. The EU cannot roll over into a policy of appeasement or take its leverage off the table. It cannot be a payer without being a player. Europe must use every diplomatic and political tool it has to rebuild lives and restore rights, or it risks being remembered as a bystander to realpolitik rather than a broker of principled peace.”   

This report highlights how foreign states and corporations, through ongoing trade with illegal settlements, directly enable the humanitarian crisis driven by Israel’s prolonged occupation.

On June 27, African and European agriculture ministers will gather in Rome for the 6th AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference. This comes against a backdrop of a worsening climate crisis, soaring inequalities, and rising hunger. Nearly one in five people in Africa - close to 300 million - now face food insecurity. The stakes could not be higher. The decisions made in Rome could lay the foundations for food systems that are just, sustainable and deeply rooted in communities. A far cry from the current emphasis on an industrial, export-led agricultural system dominated by large corporations.

Today, EU Foreign Policy Chief, Kaja Kallas, presented a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement at the meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers. In response, Agnes Bertrand Sanz, Oxfam Humanitarian Expert, said:   “There are moments in history where delay and distraction are not neutral, it is a decision. While EU ministers continue to debate and defer, entire families in Gaza are being buried under rubble and people are being killed while trying to get food.  

Ahead of the EU foreign affairs ministers' meeting to discuss the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Agnes Bertrand Sanz, Oxfam Humanitarian Expert, said: “The cost of inaction is measured in lives. Oxfam and partners see firsthand the unspeakable toll in Gaza: homes flattened, hospitals destroyed and looming famine. No one should live in this constant fear, not knowing if today will be the day they die. There is no time for more debate and no room for passing the buck. It is time for leadership and decisive action. Europe must ask itself: does it want to be complicit in these atrocities?” 

As you prepare to meet in Luxembourg on 20 June, we urge you to consider a matter of growing importance: the urgent need to establish new, fair, and sustainable resources for the European Union.