European Union ambassadors met in Brussels on Friday to assess options for restricting imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank (Palestinian territory seized by Israel in 1967, where over 500,000 Israeli settlers live alongside nearly three million Palestinians). The European Commission presented three possible approaches: a partial or total import ban similar to measures already adopted by Spain and Ireland; an export-licensing system based on a Franco-Swedish proposal, though the Commission warns it could be easily circumvented; or the imposition of prohibitive tariffs, an option complicated by the fact that Israel already offers settlers financial rebates. A key procedural hurdle is that the Commission believes any measure would need to be adopted under foreign policy rules, requiring a unanimous vote among the 27 member states — a threshold that has so far proved impossible to reach — though EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is pushing to frame it as a trade matter, which would require only a qualified majority.