Josep Borrell departs EU role after bolstering his Middle East legacy

Critics say foreign affairs chief exposed bloc's divisions over Gaza war, but supporters hail his empathy with Palestinian plight

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell has said the situation in the Middle East 'is much worse than in the last five years'. AFP

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell made the Middle East crisis the clear focus of his final week in the role, but offered a bleak assessment of his mandate's legacy at the second meeting of a global alliance for a Palestinian state.

In the past year, Israel's wars on Gaza and Lebanon at times overshadowed the Ukraine conflict. Mr Borrell, 77, a former foreign minister in his homeland of Spain, was outspoken about the crisis in the enclave, being hailed as a beacon of hope amid an otherwise ineffective EU response to the conflict.

He addressed delegates in Brussels on Thursday, after a final visit to the Middle East where he met senior Lebanese officials, and said he was "coming back home without a lot of success – the situation today is much worse than in the last five years".

Some countries in the EU voiced dissatisfaction with his actions, saying he ventured too far from the middle ground that those in his role are expected to occupy. The position does not allow for unilateral decisions such as sanctions, and those who take the job are required to enforce decisions taken by consensus, which is why the bloc has struggled to formulate a coherent policy on matters such as the Palestine-Israel crisis.

While some EU states, including Ireland, Spain and Belgium, have pushed for Palestinian rights, others such as Germany, Austria and Hungary have been reluctant to appear critical of Israel.

"Gaza was the breaking point for the EU," an EU official told The National. "But a lot was accomplished by Mr Borrell refusing to be merely a servant to member states." Mr Borrell was influential in the efforts by the bloc to aid Ukraine and train its soldiers after Russia's invasion in 2022, the official added.

Minority view

There has largely been European consensus on Ukraine, but division remains on matters in the Middle East. One diplomat said there had been "incessant quarrels" over how to word statements on the region's conflicts following the October 7 attack on Israel. But crafting such statements is a painstaking process – it took member states two days to agree on the words used to welcome the ceasefire in Lebanon, announced on Tuesday evening by the US and France.

The diplomat also said Mr Borrell was "not the best HRVP ever", referring to his official title of high representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy.

While Mr Borrell could not go further than statements due to the EU's power structures, he played an important role in shaping the bloc's response to the first year of Israel's war on Gaza, which health authorities in the enclave say has killed more than 44,300 people.

His repeated calls for empathy for Palestinians contrasted with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's relative silence on the extent of the human suffering in the enclave. About 70 per cent of those killed in Gaza have been women and children.

In a move that shaped the world's view of the EU's response to the October 7 attack, Ms von der Leyen flew the Israeli flag outside her office headquarters. Six days later, she travelled to Israel with Parliament President Roberta Metsola. "Borrell leaves a legacy of having been able to show pretty equal empathy for both sides of the conflict, a minority skill in the EU, most of whose leaders tend to side with Israel," Martin Konecny, director of the European Middle East Project think tank in Brussels, told The National.

Many officials, including perhaps Mr Borrell himself, would push back against claims of a pro-Palestinian bias. "You won’t find a single statement by Borrell that would show him favouring Palestinian rights and interests over Israel's," Mr Konecny added. "He has always promoted the classical EU position in favour of two-state solution and international law – and even in his case with much greater emphasis on Israeli security than that of Palestinians."

Unfettered by domestic concerns that face European political leaders on a national level, Mr Borrell in February called for an arms embargo on Israel, seven months before French President Emmanuel Macron followed suit.

"Borrell was one of the most outspoken EU leaders, but was ultimately constrained by the limitations of his role," said Hussein Baoumi, foreign policy advocacy officer at Amnesty International's European institutions office in Brussels. "But it does help to shape the narrative. He was willing to issue statement after statement, and eventually some media caught on."

Unwanted competition

Mr Borrell's supporters say he is a humanist at heart, who was shaped by growing up during the 1936-1975 Francoist dictatorship in Spain. Aged 22, he spent time at an Israeli kibbutz – a fact he highlighted repeatedly in the past year to counter accusations of anti-Semitism from the Israeli government. It appears to have failed to convince Israel, which has refused to engage with EU initiatives, including the global alliance for a Palestinian state.

"The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government does not like the EU," the EU official said. "They prefer to not recognise the EU as a power and foster bilateral relations individually."

Faced with the refusal of member states such as Hungary and the Czech Republic to back wording that may appear critical of Israel, Mr Borrell increasingly published statements in his own name, or in the name of 26 member states. They included a rebuttal in July after the Knesset rejected Palestinian statehood.

Mr Borrell went as far as to propose suspending diplomatic dialogue with Israel, during his last meeting of the EU's 27 foreign affairs ministers. The move was based on rights breaches, as laid out in the EU's association agreement with Israel.

With at least one third of member states declaring opposition to the proposal at a preparatory meeting, he knew it would not gain consensus. But he presented his case at the November 18 meeting, at the risk of highlighting divisions in the bloc.

"Why make a proposal when he knew he wouldn’t get the required unanimity? He was going forward with his own convictions and not reading the mood in the room at the detriment of the EU’s image to the outside world," the EU diplomat said.

Mr Borrell said before the meeting that he had "no more words" to describe the situation in the Middle East. "He wanted to provoke them and have them discuss whether Israel is adhering to EU demands on international law. More and more evidence points towards the fact that they are not," the EU official said.

Disgruntled comments normally kept behind closed door burst into the open. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp expressed his frustration at Mr Borrell's style, saying he took a "180 degree turn" on the association agreement with Israel.

Mr Veldkamp also said he looked forward to working with former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, who succeeds Mr Borrell on Sunday. She is viewed as an anti-Russian hawk but has so far been quiet on the crisis in the Middle East. "There are hopes that Kaja Kallas will be more balanced in terms of listening to member states," the EU diplomat added.

Mr Borrell's style may have irked some officials, but there was merit in exposing a reluctance to hold Israel to account, the EU official said. Before Thursday's meeting, Mr Borrell criticised countries for failing to fully endorse the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Member states get the HRVP they choose," the EU official said. "It's an unspoken rule that foreign ministers don't want competition. It's not surprising that they didn't like being challenged."