A European Union proposal to droop Israel from a analysis funding program for startups did not garner the required help for passage Tuesday after Germany and Italy balked.
The proposal, announced Monday, would partially droop Israel’s participation within the bloc’s flagship Horizon analysis funding program. It got here in response to calls from EU international locations to push Israel to alleviate the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, and is considered one of a number of avenues European international locations are pursuing to stress Israel within the face of reviews of hunger within the enclave.
A number of EU international locations stated final week that Israel was not dwelling as much as its commitments beneath an settlement with the European Union on rising support provides to Gaza. They requested the European Fee, the bloc’s govt arm, to place concrete choices on the desk.
“Whereas Israel has introduced a day by day humanitarian pause in Gaza preventing and has met a few of its commitments beneath the widespread understanding on humanitarian support and entry, the state of affairs stays extreme,” the European Fee stated in an announcement saying the proposal.
The proposal would take away Israel from the Accelerator of the European Innovation Council, a pool of funding focused at startups concerned in fields together with drone expertise, cybersecurity, and synthetic intelligence.
However the proposal fell wanting a majority in an EU assembly, reportedly after Germany and Italy requested for extra time to look at it. To cross, the proposal would want approval from a professional majority of EU international locations to take impact – at the least 15 of the EU’s 27 members, representing at the least 65 % of its inhabitants.

President of the European Fee Ursula von der Leyen reacts throughout a joint press convention with then-prime minister Naftali Bennett (not pictured) in Jerusalem on June 14, 2022. (Amir Cohen/Pool/AFP)
International locations additionally reportedly requested for time to see if the humanitarian state of affairs in Gaza would enhance. In latest days, in response to heavy worldwide stress over reviews of widespread extreme malnutrition within the enclave, Israel introduced a sequence of measures to extend the movement of support.
In a statement forward of the assembly, Israel’s Overseas Ministry referred to as the proposal “mistaken, regrettable, and unjustified.”
“At a time when Israel is preventing Hamas’s jihadist terrorism, any such choice solely serves to strengthen Hamas and subsequently undermines the possibilities of reaching a ceasefire and a framework for the discharge of hostages,” the assertion stated.
The proposal was not put to a proper vote on Tuesday, however had the help of the Netherlands, Eire, France, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Portugal, Malta and Spain, based on EuroNews. Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechia opposed the proposal.
Germany and Hungary have been amongst Israel’s closest allies in Europe throughout its warfare towards Hamas in Gaza, whereas a rising variety of different European international locations have taken a spread of actions to sign their opposition to Israeli conduct in Gaza in addition to the West Financial institution.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron maintain a joint press convention in London, July 10, 2025. (Leon Neal/Pool Photograph through AP)
France announced final week that it will acknowledge a Palestinian state in September, and the UK, which isn’t an EU member, said it will observe swimsuit until there’s a ceasefire within the Gaza warfare. A number of different European international locations have acknowledged a Palestinian state for the reason that outbreak of the warfare triggered by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
Israel’s Overseas Ministry posted on X that such a step “constitutes a reward for Hamas and harms efforts to attain a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the discharge of hostages.”
Earlier this week, the Netherlands banned far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben Gvir from coming into the nation, a part of a raft of measures to stress Israel over the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Lazar Berman, Nava Freiberg and businesses contributed to this report.