The EU will appeal a court decision ordering the removal of the Palestinian group Hamas from the EU terrorism blacklist, the EU Council announced today.
The European Court of Justice in December revoked the Council of the European Union's decision on including the Palestinian Hamas movement on the European list of terrorist organizations.
"The court decided to cancel the decision of the European Council of 22 July 2014, supplementing the list of persons, groups and organizations falling under the special measures to combat terrorism, approved by the Board of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in 2001," the court emphasized. The EU blacklisted the political wing of Hamas in 2003.
At the same time, this ruling was clearly based on procedural grounds and did not imply any assessment by the court of the merits of designating Hamas as a terrorist organization.
The Court emphasized that the verdict applies only to technical inconsistencies of specific decisions of the European Council to adopted EU legal norms. This means that Hamas today is excluded from the "blacklist" of terrorist organizations, but Brussels can include it on this list again, preparing a formal legal basis for this decision more carefully.
The representative for the EU's foreign service, Maya Kosyanchich, commenting on the court's decision, stated that the EU will continue to consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization until the decision of the European Court comes into effect.
