{"id":458230,"date":"2026-06-29T11:38:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T09:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/29\/il-vaticano-bacchetta-lue-sanzioni-alla-russia-ma-armi-a-israele\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:11:28","slug":"vatican-rebukes-eu-over-sanctions-on-russia-and-arms-supplies-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/29\/vatican-rebukes-eu-over-sanctions-on-russia-and-arms-supplies-to-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatican rebukes EU over sanctions on Russia and arms supplies to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cThe European Union, in effect, imposes economic sanctions on one country and sends financial aid and weapons to another, while turning a blind eye to other, even more serious invasions, with even more brutal consequences for entire populations\u201d. The accusation comes from Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez, during his opening address at an Extraordinary Consistory at the Vatican<\/a> on Friday (26 June) with Pope Leo XIV. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The implication is clear. The EU is imposing sanctions on Russia but supplying arms to Israel<\/strong>. To avoid any misunderstanding, the cardinal added that \u201cIsrael\u2019s destruction of entire cities cannot be considered a proportionate defensive action. The enormous disproportion of the military operations in Gaza and southern Lebanon is evident<\/strong>\u201d. Furthermore, \u201cas these are densely populated territories, the proportion of civilian deaths relative to the total population, the huge number of children killed and the number of homes bombed allow us to speak of <\/span>total destruction,<\/span><\/a>“ he added.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 Fern\u00e1ndez described the EU\u2019s inaction towards Israel as symptomatic of a global order in which \u201cthere is no longer a real and stable framework of truth and values.\u201d The cardinal went on to say that Israel and Russia are framing their own acts of aggression within the \u201ctheological criteria of just wars.\u201d A \u201cmanipulation of the Church\u2019s Social Doctrine\u201d which is \u201cused to provide a theoretical basis for the most unjust wars,\u201d he explained. Despite the devastating effects of the ongoing attacks, the cardinal observed that \u201cboth in Russia and in the United States\u2019 involvement in the wars in the Middle East, the justification is always some form of self-defence.\u201d<\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For over two years, the European Union has been discussing sanctions against Israel without managing to translate them into concrete measures. In September 2025, the President of the Commission, <\/span>Ursula von der Leyen,<\/b> announced a proposal for the partial suspension<\/a><\/span> of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, in force since 2000, which grants Israel preferential access to European markets. The package provided for tariffs on 37 per cent of Israeli imports, individual sanctions against Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, and the freezing of approximately 20 million euros in European funds. The proposal stalled almost immediately until the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg in April 2026, where the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, had to admit that she had \u201cseen no change in positions around the table.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The only concrete step forward came on 11 May<\/a> when, following the fall of Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> in Hungary \u2013 who had vetoed the move for years \u2013 the 27 foreign ministers unanimously approved sanctions against certain violent settlers and members of Hamas. The next meeting is scheduled for 13 July 2026, when the Foreign Affairs Council is due to examine new options regarding illegal settlements. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So far, the Italian government has not responded to the Vatican’s message. Italian Prime Minister <\/span>Giorgia Meloni <\/strong>finds herself in a difficult position. On the one hand, she has gradually \u2013 and tentatively \u2013 distanced herself from Israel. In August 2025,  she <\/span>stated<\/a><\/span> that Israeli operations had \u201cexceeded the bounds of proportionality,\u201d and in September, at the UN, she announced Italy\u2019s support for some of the sanctions proposed by the Commission. Then, in April 2026, <\/span>she suspended<\/a><\/span> the automatic renewal of the bilateral defence cooperation agreement with Tel Aviv. On the other hand, in Brussels, the Italian government <\/strong><\/span>has continued to block<\/a><\/strong> the most substantial measure, namely the suspension of the Association Agreement<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The accusation was made by Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez during the opening address of an Extraordinary Consistory at the Vatican presided over by Pope Leo XIV. He added that \u201cIsrael\u2019s destruction of entire cities cannot be regarded as a proportionate defensive action.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":458189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25890,34206,34639,28074,31310,26064,34640,25804,25803,33394,31144,26774],"class_list":["post-458230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-accordi","tag-cardinale","tag-commissione-en","tag-gauze","tag-giorgia-meloni-en","tag-papa-leone","tag-sanctionsin","tag-russia-in-2","tag-ue","tag-vaticano-en","tag-westbank-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458231,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458230\/revisions\/458231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}