Open Letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: Immediately Activate the EU Blocking Statute to Protect the ICC from US Sanctions
All 27 EU Member States are States Parties to the Rome Statute and among the Court’s largest financial contributors. The EU itself has repeatedly recognised the ICC as the cornerstone of the international criminal justice system and the global fight against impunity. We have taken note of the statements issued by the President of the European Council, by the European Commission, and by the High Representative on behalf of the EU in response to the sanctions. Diplomatic engagements with the US should solely aim at securing the full revocation of the sanctions and must not entail concessions concerning any of the demands laid out by the US, including changing the jurisdiction of the ICC or sidelining certain investigations. In any case, efforts to revoke the sanctions must not delay the adoption of concrete measures to protect the Court. The six-month wind-down period announced by the US administration cannot become an excuse for inaction. The European Commission must activate the EU Blocking Statute without delay by adding Executive Order 14203 to its Annex by means of a delegated act.
The CICC has long warned the EU and its Member States of the serious risk that the US sanctions regime would progressively expand to target the Court itself, as well as those supporting and cooperating with it, and the need for a strong and coordinated response from States Parties to protect the Court. Regrettably, our warnings have gone unheeded. With institutional sanctions now in place, we urge the European Commission to act without further delay and deploy the instruments at your disposal to protect the Court and those cooperating with it.
Words of condemnation of the US sanctions must now be matched by concrete action: the EU must deploy all the instruments at its disposal, starting with the immediate activation of the EU Blocking Statute (Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96) by adding Executive Order 14203 to its Annex by means of a delegated act. The EU should also continue to find concrete solutions for the ICC’s operations, and ensure these solutions extend to civil society organisations targeted for their cooperation with the Court, notably the three Palestinian human rights organisations – Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) – designated under EO14203.
Belgium, France, Spain and Slovenia, the European Parliament (EP), civil society organisations, designated individuals and members of national parliaments of EU Member States have already publicly called for the activation of the EU Blocking Statute in response to sanctions against ICC officials. In a joint statement in reaction to the institutional sanctions on the ICC, the chairs of the EP’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), Committee on International Trade (INTA), Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), and Delegation for Relations with the United States (D-US) openly called on the European Commission to immediately activate the EU Blocking Statute to shield the Court and European actors the extraterritorial reach of these sanctions US sanctions. On 12 October, over 200 civil society organisations from more than 60 countries and individuals have joined the CICC in calling on the European Commission to immediately activate the EU Blocking Statute, as well as dozens of legal experts, international lawyers, human rights defenders and members of the European Parliament.
It is now imperative that the European Commission act on these calls. The EU stands at a crossroads: it can either translate its longstanding commitments into concrete measures to protect the Court and those supporting it, or risk allowing a non-State Party to leverage its influence over global financial market, IT, and other service-providers to undermine the Court’s ability to function in support of victims and survivors across the globe.
