The European Commission will examine a citizens' initiative calling for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, after the campaign gathered more than 1.1 million verified signatures from people across the European Union.

The organisers of the initiative, titled "Demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel's violations of human rights", formally submitted it to the Commission for examination on Thursday 12 November, after the verification phase was completed successfully.

According to the Commission, the initiative collected 1,117,104 verified statements of support from EU citizens, passing the required minimum of one million, and reached the required thresholds in 12 member states. It is the 15th citizens' initiative to reach this stage.

What the initiative asks for

The organisers are asking the Commission to put forward a proposal to the Council of the EU for the full suspension of the association agreement, which has governed political and economic relations between the EU and Israel, including trade arrangements, since it entered into force in 2000.

The campaign argues that Israel has violated the human rights provisions of the agreement. The Commission has stressed that examining the initiative does not mean it endorses the organisers' claims, which remain their responsibility.

The initiative was registered by the Commission in November 2025, allowing signature collection to begin. Campaigners then had to gather at least one million signatures, with minimum numbers reached in at least seven member states, before the Commission was obliged to consider it.

What happens next

The Commission will meet the organisers in the coming weeks to discuss the initiative in detail, and the European Parliament will hold a public hearing on it.

The Commission has until 12 May 2027 to present its official reply, setting out what action, if any, it intends to take. Under the European citizens' initiative rules, the Commission is required to respond, but it is not obliged to propose the suspension the campaigners are seeking.

Any decision to suspend the agreement would in any case require a proposal from the Commission and the agreement of the Council, where member states have long been divided over EU policy towards Israel.

A test of the citizens' initiative system

The European citizens' initiative was created to give EU citizens a direct route to ask the Commission to propose legislation. Only a small number of campaigns have ever gathered enough verified support to reach the examination stage, and the Israel initiative is the 15th to do so.

The scale of the response, with more than 1.1 million signatures, makes it one of the larger campaigns the Commission has had to consider. How it responds by next May will be watched closely, both by supporters of the initiative and by those who argue that the association agreement should remain in place.

For now, the agreement remains in force. The Commission's decision to examine the initiative is a procedural step, but it puts the future of one of the EU's most sensitive external relationships formally on the agenda in Brussels.