An Israeli firm has laid bare the EU's hollow words on ethics rules in its Horizon Europe science programme.
Arms company Rafael took €442,750 of EU taxpayers' money in 2023 to help do Horizon research on "underwater security" in a project that ends next year.
The Israeli defence ministry obtained a further €100,000 for the same scheme.
Rafael subsequently disgraced itself by publishing an advert on X on 7 July this year, which showed one of its drones murdering an unarmed man in Gaza.
And the Israeli Defence Forces have killed over 63,000 people in Gaza, in what the International Court of Justice in The Hague has called a "plausible ... genocide".
An EU Commission spokesperson told EUobserver in July that Horizon's "independent ethics advisor" was scrutinising Rafael's drone "action", with a "possibility to recover fully or partly the awarded funding".
But in fact, the EU spokesperson misinformed us and our readers, since the advisor did no such thing.
The ethics advisor, Katerina Hadjimatheou, who is a criminologist at the University of Essex in the UK, didn't do it because her legal mandate was limited to scrutiny of Rafael's behaviour inside the Horizon project only, excluding its outside activities in Gaza or elsewhere.
This was something the commission spokesperson was likely well aware of when they wrote to EUobserver in July, seeing as they first took seven days to consult on their reply with colleagues.
When confronted by EUobserver this week, the commission declined to say anything about the Hadjimatheou mandate snafu or to say who - if anyone - did have a licence to look at broader ethical compliance.
It also declined to take any position on Rafael or the Israeli defence ministry's ongoing Horizon eligibility.
Instead, it issued a boilerplate statement: "Ethics related checks or reviews may be initiated at any time if ethical concerns emerge. Non-compliance may lead to ... termination of the project".
Meanwhile, Hadjimatheou herself has been gagged from telling press what she personally felt about Rafael or the Israeli defence ministry by an EU non-disclosure agreement.
And the Horizon undersea security project's co-ordinator, a German research body called Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, refused to condemn Rafael's snuff-ad because it wanted to remain "neutral".
"Fraunhofer clearly opposes all dehumanising ideologies," Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft's Sabine Trupp claimed in an email to a concerned Italian academic, dated 8 August and seen by EUobserver.
"At the same time, Fraunhofer maintains neutrality toward the interests of individuals and groups in politics, business, and society," Trupp said.
Trupp declined to answer EUobserver's questions.
"Neutrality" has not stopped the EU from excluding Russian and Turkish firms from Horizon grants on ethical grounds in the past.
Italy's Port of Ravenna, which is also taking part in the underwater security project, was the first to raise the alarm on Rafael's drone-kill ad.
It tasked a group of British and Italian academics to look into the compatibility of the Israeli grants with Horizon rules, who found them to be in flagrant violation.
"It is absolutely clear that the Israeli ministry of defence and Rafael are involved in war crimes ... their non-compliance requires immediate action either in the form of suspension of funding to these entities or termination of the project," said Nicola Perugini, a professor of international relations at the University of Edinburgh in the UK.
A Port of Ravenna spokeswoman told EUobserver on Thursday that "at this time, the port authority does not intend to initiate any legal action," to remedy the situation, however.
A "growing majority" of member states want Israel to be kicked out of Horizon entirely, according to the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, speaking in Copenhagen last Saturday.
But Germany and Italy are blocking the move, with Germany saying Horizon is a "civilian" programme unrelated to the Gaza war.
The EU countries' inertia has prompted grassroots protests and activism in Europe, with dockworkers at Port of Genoa in Italy threatening to block all cargo to Israel last week, for instance.
The EU institutions' inaction has also caused dissent among their own staff.
"Everyone, including me, has a responsibility to decide who they are willing to work with, given their own moral values," said a Horizon Europe contact, who was considering whether to resign.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.