The Media Line: EU Ambassador to Israel Admits Relations Have Become ‘Rather Strained’ Since October 7

EU Ambassador to Israel Admits Relations Have Become ‘Rather Strained’ Since October 7 

EU Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann told TML that the EU holds Israel to a higher standard than some other countries in the region: “There is a framework for our relationship with Israel that you don’t have with countries like Syria … “ 

By Maayan Hoffman/The Media Line 

European Union Ambassador to Israel Michael Mann referred to Israel’s relationship with the European body as “a bit challenging at the moment,” just days before Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that he is “severing all contact with European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas,” amid reports that during her visit to Mexico, Kallas compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime that existed in South Africa. 

“I am grateful to the many European elected representatives who condemned this grave statement,” Sa’ar said in a statement Thursday. “However, to date, no denial, clarification, or response has been issued by her regarding this severe statement … Until [Kallas] retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state, which is also the only democracy in the Middle East,” Sa’ar said, ties would remain severed. 

Mann, who spoke to The Media Line last Tuesday, said that the EU’s official policy is not that Israel is an apartheid state. 

He arrived in Israel in September 2025, shortly after the first Iran war in June 2025, but soon enough to experience the ballistic missile attacks of the second clash in the spring of 2026. Speaking via Zoom, he admitted that a “problem really has developed” between Israel and the EU since October 7, 2023, and throughout the two-and-a-half-year, seven-front war Israel has been fighting, including against Hamas in Gaza. 

“There was growing public and political concern in European countries about the way the war was being waged in Gaza,” Mann said. “We were of the belief that, as time went on, there was too much collateral damage, too many civilian victims … The relationship has become rather strained as a result of that.” 

Around the time Mann, who previously served as ambassador to Iceland, arrived in Israel, the president of the European Commission had proposed a series of measures aimed at pressuring Israel to scale back its campaign in Gaza and reduce civilian casualties. As Mann noted, many of those measures have remained on the agenda of the European Union’s foreign ministers since then but have not been adopted. 

“We have had a problem in Europe actually agreeing to those measures, but the fact that those measures are on the table has upset the Israeli government,” Mann explained. “There’s a lot of rhetoric flying backward and forward. We see messages coming out from the Israeli government that are extremely critical of certain European countries and of the actions of the European Union.” 

Some of those measures included a recommendation to partially suspend the trade-related provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and calls to sanction specific “extremist” Israeli ministers. 

 

He said that as Israel moves closer to its October 2026 election period, the rhetoric is becoming increasingly harsh. He pointed to recent statements by Israel’s Foreign Ministry alleging that the EU is directly funding terrorism, a claim Mann strongly rejects. 

“We need to try to tone down the rhetoric a little bit and try to find a way out of the impasse,” Mann told The Media Line. “We have so much in common, and we have so many shared interests.” 

The European Union is Israel’s largest trading partner and the second-largest investor in the Jewish state. Israel participates in several EU programs, including Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, which allow Israeli students to study in Europe. There are also deep cultural and familial ties between Israelis and Europeans. 

Mann was careful to note, as well, that the EU comprises 27 countries, and not all of them share the same views. 

“The situations are very different from country to country,” Mann stressed. “There’s a little bit of misunderstanding on both sides. Maybe my job is to try to overcome some of that.” 

But even as Israel and the EU continue to collaborate, additional points of tension continue to arise. Most recently, some EU member states have renewed calls to restrict imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The EU executive has been under pressure for several months to put forward a proposal for such restrictions, but has reached a deadlock. Just last week, the European Commission said it would present options before the next ministerial meeting on July 13, according to European media reports. 

To pass such sanctions, however, Mann said at least 55% of EU member states representing at least 65% of the EU’s total population would need to approve them. 

The Commission has been slow to move forward with trade-restriction recommendations because the Council has been unable to reach a qualified majority to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement. 

However, the EU last month did adopt sanctions against a handful of what it deemed extremist settlers and organizations, including the settler think tank and advocacy group Regavim and its director-general, Meir Deutsch. Similar sanctions were enacted by Canada last week. 

Mann told The Media Line that the sanctions were misconstrued as an attack on Israel. 

“It’s not an attack on Israel,” Mann said. “They’re not sanctions on Israel. They are sanctions on individuals and organizations that we believe have been responsible for sponsoring unjustified, illegal, violent attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. We have a very thorough system for deciding how sanctions are imposed.”  

He explained, “First, you have to get data from open sources. There’s no intelligence data. It’s all information that is available from open sources. It goes to the lawyers in the European Council of Ministers, who examine whether it is legally watertight, and then, of course, it has to be agreed unanimously by all 27 countries. So there are many checks and balances. Anyone who is subject to sanctions also has the right to challenge them in court.” 

The number of Israeli organizations sanctioned is far smaller than the list of Palestinian groups and other terrorist organizations sanctioned by the EU, Mann noted. 

 

Mann also told The Media Line that the EU holds Israel to a higher standard than some other countries in the region. Twenty-five years ago, when the EU signed an association agreement with Israel, Article 2 specifically established that “respect for human rights and democratic principles” constitutes an essential element of the partnership between the European Union and Israel. 

As such, Mann said, “there is a framework for our relationship with Israel that you don’t have with countries like Syria, or whatever … We always say that Israel is a country that shares our values, and sometimes … we fear that that is not the case anymore.” 

He said that the idea that Israel is unnecessarily and unfairly singled out is “not entirely true.” 

However, a recent report by the Jewish People Policy Institute suggested otherwise. 

Last week, in an analysis published by Euractiv, JPPI Senior Fellow Sharon Pardo noted that an analysis of more than 24,000 official statements, press releases, and diplomatic communications issued by the European External Action Service (EEAS) between 2017 and April 2026 found that 4% concerned Israel, a disproportionately high number. 

Moreover, the JPPI report highlighted that across the entire period, 38% of EEAS statements concerning Israel were negative and only 13% positive. The rest, 49%, were neutral. The situation became even more acute following the October 7 massacre. In the last few years, negative statements rose from 29% before the attack to nearly 46% afterward, according to the report. 

Pardo noted that “more than half of all EEAS statements concerning Israel included references to the two-state solution or the establishment of a Palestinian state,” something that Mann said continues to be a fundamental disagreement between Israel and the EU. “We are very passionate believers in the two-state solution,” Mann insisted, even as the Knesset has “firmly rejected” the establishment of a Palestinian state and many surveys indicate that Palestinians likewise oppose the idea. 

“We believe that the only way to ensure peace and security for Israel and also for the Palestinians is to find, in the long term, some sort of solution where there are two states that can live side by side in peace and security,” he said. 

Mann acknowledged that whereas the Palestinian-Israeli conflict may once have been viewed as a standalone issue, there is now a growing understanding that any lasting solution will need to extend beyond the Palestinians and fit within a broader regional framework. 

For example, he pointed to the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain, which were signed nearly 6 years ago and have endured despite the conflicts that have since engulfed the region. He also noted that shortly before October 7, Israel and Saudi Arabia were discussing normalization and said he believes that possibility is once again on the agenda. 

“There is hope and optimism that the two-state solution … can become a reality as part of a kind of regional security arrangement,” Mann told The Media Line. 

When asked about the memorandum of understanding signed between the United States and Iran and whether he viewed it as a positive step for the region, Mann said the EU has long been “very concerned” about Iran’s treatment of its own citizens, as well as its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. 

 

Mann served as chief spokesperson for Catherine Ashton, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and vice president of the European Commission, during the talks that led to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He said he believes a negotiated agreement remains necessary today. 

“Obviously, the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz had a very damaging effect on the European economy,” Mann said. “So, we are very happy that there has now been an agreement, an initial agreement. We are happy that the war is over, and we just hope that this will lead to an agreement in the end that will tick the boxes.” 

At the same time, he noted that the ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps still “very much run” Iran, meaning significant challenges remain. 

For his part, Mann said he still has another three years in Israel and hopes to make progress in strengthening ties between Jerusalem and Brussels, even if the work ahead is very different from the negotiations surrounding Iran. 

“I would like to see progress over the next three years,” Mann concluded. “I’m trying to reach out to as much of Israeli society as I possibly can while I’m here, and I’m finding it very fascinating. What an amazing, diverse country you have here, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my job here, despite all the challenges.” 

 

 

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