When 414 of Europe’s most experienced former diplomats, ministers and senior officials speak with one voice, the world ought to listen, and more than the world the EU institutions themselves. The joint statement of the 414, dated 16 October 2025 and titled “From Ceasefire to Peace and Beyond – the EU’s Vital Role”, is more than a policy memo. It is a moral call to arms, an insistence that Europe must transform the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Palestine into a lasting peace rooted in justice, accountability and international law.
The signatories include former foreign ministers like Ireland’s Simon Coveney, Sweden’s Margot Wallström and Spain’s Agustín Santos Maraver, former EU High Representative Josep Borrell and hundreds of ex-ambassadors, who have shaped Europe’s global presence across continents. Their combined authority carries the weight of decades of diplomacy, experience in conflict resolution and an intimate understanding of Europe’s capacity, and obligation, to act as a force for peace.
A fragile ceasefire and a vanishing moral compass
The statement begins by welcoming the partial successes of President Trump’s peace plan, the release of the remaining 20 Israeli hostages, nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and a limited Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. But the authors are under no illusion. They describe the ceasefire as “fragile,” stressing that “under no circumstances should hostilities resume.” That urgency stems from a grim awareness, that without genuine political will, truces can dissolve overnight. The statements’ warning against “revenge killings by Hamas” and against any resumption of Israeli military operations underscores a balanced yet uncompromising stance that violence from either side must end.
Ireland’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Simon Coveney, who is quoted in the statement, frames the challenge plainly. He says that the “task ahead … is formidable but clear – ending once and for all the conflict between Israel and Palestine and establishing two states living side by side in peace and security: this opportunity must be seized at all costs.” His words recall the European Union’s own foundational story of a continent rebuilt on reconciliation after devastation. That analogy, implicit throughout the statement, gives Europe not just a role, but a responsibility to bring its hard-won lessons of peacebuilding to the Middle East.
Humanitarian aid first, politics later
The statement signatories make a striking policy demand, that humanitarian aid to Gaza must resume “fully and uninhibitedly” to prevent malnutrition and starvation. They insist that UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, be immediately allowed by Israel to operate freely, alongside NGOs that have “tried and tested distribution networks.” The EU, they argue, must mobilise “significant resources for aid and reconstruction,” linking these efforts to the new EU Pact for the Mediterranean.
This is not mere charity. It is strategy. The signatories understand that a Gaza rebuilt through collective international effort is a Gaza less vulnerable to extremism. The call for “critical supplies of food, water, shelter, medical and sanitation items” and “rehabilitation of hospitals and utilities” goes hand-in-hand with a demand for transparency. Journalists and human-rights observers must be allowed in. The insistence on opening Gaza to the outside world is both humanitarian and political, sunlight as disinfectant, so to speak.
The quote from Margot Wallström, former Swedish Foreign Minister and European Commission First Vice-President, captures the scale of the challenge: “Removing more than 50 million tons of rubble and unexploded ordnance and launching an estimated USD 50 billion reconstruction programme are Herculean tasks.” Her appeal is not only for resources, but for security, because without stable conditions, even billions cannot rebuild hope. Europe, she argues, must “play its full part in this effort.” That is a polite way of saying that inaction is complicity.
Two states and one standard of law
The heart of the statement lies in its unapologetic support for the two-state solution. The signatories call for “two functioning States living side by side in peace and security within the June 1967 borders, with any changes being mutually agreed.” What sets this apart from past pronouncements is the insistence on legality. The statement, through a quote from former European Parliament President and EU High Representative / Vice-President Josep Borrell, refers to the Advisory Opinion of July 2024 issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which deemed the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful.
Borrell’s quote crystallises the argument, namely that “Peace in the Middle East must be underpinned by the provisions of the UN Charter with no impunity for those who committed acts in violation of international law. The EU must use all levers at its disposal to press Israel to end its illegal occupation”. For once, this is not the cautious ambiguity of European officialdom. It is a demand for the EU to act like the “normative power” it claims to be, to use sanctions, legal pressure and diplomatic muscle to enforce the very laws it helped write.
Equally significant is the demand that Palestinians “elect their own political leaders, not excluding prominent individuals currently imprisoned by Israel, in free and fair democratic elections observed by the international community.” That phrasing is deliberate. It rejects the convenient Western narrative that Palestinian governance is inherently dysfunctional. Instead, it insists that democracy is both a right and a prerequisite for peace and that some of the very figures capable of leading such a movement remain Israel’s political prisoners.
Accountability without exception
The statement’s boldest section addresses accountability. It declares that “without accountability for acts undertaken in violation of international law there can be no just and lasting peace.” This principle applies universally, to Hamas militants who target Israeli civilians and to Israeli commanders responsible for disproportionate attacks on Palestinian civilian installations, as well as to their military and political superiors.
The signatories urge the EU to support the decisions of European and international courts (ECJ, ICJ, ICC) in pursuing justice, implement rulings and “impose restrictive measures on all recalcitrants” violating UN resolutions or the EU-Israel Association Agreement. They go further, calling for “compensation for loss of life and damage caused by military operations.”
In a climate where international law has been eroded by political expediency, from Ukraine to Gaza, this is a radical reaffirmation of the rule of law universally applied. Europe’s diplomats and ministers, now liberated from office, are saying aloud what serving officials rarely dare say, and that is that international law means nothing if it is applied selectively.
Europe’s own reflection
Perhaps the statement’s most introspective line is its last. “The EU, the most successful peace project in history, should ensure that its own identity and experience in promoting reconciliation and cooperative security is brought to bear on the peace process.” It is both an appeal and a rebuke. For too long, Europe has outsourced Middle East diplomacy to Washington, content to fund humanitarian relief, while shying away from hard political choices.
But with 414 former insiders, from Hans Blix and Jan Eliasson in Sweden to Enrico De Maio in Italy and Laurens Jan Brinkhorst in the Netherlands, urging direct engagement, that complacency can no longer be sustained. They represent every major EU member state and almost every institution of the Union. They know that Europe’s leverage is not only financial, it is also moral and historical. The EU was born out of war and occupation. Its credibility as a peace actor depends on defending its own foundational principles abroad.
Why this matters now
The significance of this statement extends beyond the Middle East. It comes at a time when global norms are fraying, when populist governments deride international law as an obstacle rather than a compass, and when civilian suffering is dismissed as collateral damage.
The former diplomats and ministers’ intervention re-anchors Europe in its foundational ethos, which is peace through law, justice through accountability, and prosperity through cooperation. It also reflects a long-overdue reckoning within European foreign policy circles and a frustration that decades of cautious inaction have achieved neither peace nor influence.
By invoking the ICJ and the UN Charter, the signatories remind policymakers that legality is not optional. By citing reconstruction figures, USD 50 billion for Gaza’s rebuilding and 50 million tons of rubble to clear, they translate morality into material urgency. And by keeping the statement open for additional signatures, they turn a high-level call into a movement.
A call to conscience
In essence, “From Ceasefire to Peace and beyond” is not just a diplomatic communiqué. It is Europe’s conscience talking, reminding its current leaders that silence, neutrality and procedural caution are forms of complicity when civilians starve under siege and law is flouted with impunity.
It is an invitation to rediscover courage, to use the tools of trade, aid and law, not as substitutes for moral clarity, but as its instruments. It dares Brussels to stop treating Palestine as a humanitarian problem and to start treating it as a question of justice.
And it is, finally, an act of collective memory. The EU’s founding generation believed peace required both reconciliation and accountability, from Nuremberg to Rome. These 414 signatories, veterans of those ideals, are urging Europe to live up to its own story. In doing so, they remind the world that peace without justice is only a truce and that the moral weight of history still rests on those who have learned its cost.
Dr Georgios Kostakos is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability and Daryl Swanepoel is the Chief Executive Officer of the Inclusive Society Institute. As advocates for global peace in a fairer and more just multilateral order, they respond in this article to the statement by 414 former EU & Member State Ministers, Ambassadors and Senior Officials titled ‘From Ceasefire to Peace and beyond – the EU’s vital role’.
The statement is published here: https://katoikos.world/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/STATEMENT-by-414-former-European-Ambassadors-Ministers-and-Senior-Officials-on-the-latest-situation-regarding-Palestine-_-Israel-16-October-2025.pdf
The signatories are listed here: https://katoikos.world/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/List-of-414-former-EU-ambassadors-senior-staff_10-sept-EU-Ambassadors-on-Palestine.pdf
Dr Georgios Kostakos is Co-founder and Executive Director of the Brussels-based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS). He has been a UN staff member, including with the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General, the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and field missions for political affairs and human rights. He has also worked with think tanks, academic institutions and as a consultant on global governance and sustainability, peace and resilience.
Daryl Swanepoel is the Chief Executive Officer of the Inclusive Society Institute and a leading voice on global governance reform. With a career spanning politics, business, and academia, he has served as a parliamentarian, strategist, and educator. His current focus includes work on reimagining the UN system, challenging entrenched power dynamics, and driving inclusive solutions.
