The European Commission president has condemned Israel's decision to advance the illegal E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, telling European lawmakers the move is unacceptable and that a divided Europe is failing to influence events on the ground.
"The Israeli government's decision to advance the illegal E1 settlement project is unacceptable," Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday in an address to the European Parliament, referring to the planned illegal settlement east of occupied East Jerusalem.
The E1 plan, long frozen under international pressure, would extend illegal settlement construction across the corridor linking the northern and southern West Bank, a step Palestinian officials and rights groups say would make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
Von der Leyen said the suffering in Gaza and the violence in the occupied West Bank had deeply affected Europeans, and recalled that she had previously urged the bloc to take measures in response to developments in the region. Member states, she said, had been unable to assemble the majorities needed for a unified response.
"When Europe is divided, it cannot change the course of events," she said.
She added that Europe supports what she called Israel's right to "self-defence", while stressing that Palestinians hold an equal right to live in safety and dignity.
"It is Europe's role to keep the flame of the two-state solution alive," she said.
Israel has built more than 250 illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, housing hundreds of thousands of illegal settlers. All are considered unlawful under international law, a position reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice.
New security architecture
The bulk of von der Leyen's address focused on European security, where she called for the creation of a new "European Security Council" and an EU-wide emergency protocol obliging all member states to convene when a security incident is triggered.
She said Europe's security institutions and decision-making mechanisms had not kept pace with a shifting threat environment, pointing to the continuing war in Ukraine and a rise in alleged Russian hybrid attacks against European countries.
The bloc needs "its own counter-hybrid playbook", she said, calling for agreement on how to respond to incidents that fall below the threshold of armed aggression but still threaten national security.
"I believe it is time for Europe's own Article 4, an emergency security protocol," she said, invoking the NATO charter clause under which allies meet when any member believes its security is at risk.
Any member state could trigger a meeting of all EU countries to coordinate a response, she said, adding that the mechanism would complement rather than replace NATO cooperation.
She said she would bring forward proposals for the European Security Council, a format that would also include Canada, Ukraine, the UK and Norway.
Borders and enlargement
Turning to migration, von der Leyen referred to Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, where thousands of people crossed the border from late July, saying that while such episodes differ in nature, they share common elements.
She accused traffickers and smugglers of exploiting vulnerable people and said European adversaries were also involved in exploiting such movements. The Commission has proposed sanctions targeting those networks, she said.
Europe needs the means to protect its external borders, she added, particularly when mass movements are "engineered and weaponised".
Von der Leyen announced plans for a new European emergency response instrument, to be activated only under a strictly defined set of criteria, allowing time-limited flexibility in standard procedures in such circumstances.
She also said respect for the bloc's values remains "non-negotiable", citing a recent incident in Serbia.
"I was horrified by the pictures from (Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko) Mladic's funeral in Belgrade last week. He committed the most atrocious crimes against humanity," she said.
"Glorifying war criminals simply has no place in the European Union," she added.
