Following Luxembourg’s formal recognition of the State of Palestine, Prime Minister Luc Frieden and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel announced plans to explore the creation of a national sanctions framework. Minister Bettel explained that Luxembourg currently lacks a legal mechanism for imposing such sanctions and expects the analysis to be completed by year-end.
Bettel clarified that any potential sanctions would be subject to independent review by the Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF), including decisions on whether to revoke authorisation for Israeli government bond sales in Europe. “We are not imposing sanctions to see that the CSSF cannot reject bonds,” he said. The government is compiling a comprehensive list of current measures against Israel to guide the CSSF’s work.
Luxembourg will coordinate with its BENELUX partners on measures regarding imports from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, noting that a unified approach is crucial as most goods enter the region via Brussels. Bettel observed that while unanimous EU support for sanctions is lacking, areas requiring a simple majority—such as certain EU-Israel trade agreements—could still advance.