At their plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday 12 February, MEPs held a debate on the protection of the international justice system, in particular the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
As a preamble to the discussions following US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions against the ICC (see EUROPE 13575/9), Poland’s Minister for European Affairs, Adam Szłapka, representing the Presidency of the Council of the EU, said that the EU attached “paramount importance to the protection of the international justice system and its institutions”.
He denounced the threats against the ICC and reaffirmed the EU Council’s commitment to preserving its independence and respect for the Rome Statute. He added that: “The Council welcomes the International Court of Justice’s unwavering commitment to justice and expresses its steadfast support for its indispensable role in maintaining international peace”.
The European Commissioner for Justice, Michael McGrath, sounded the alarm about the consequences of this US measure. “Only a solid and functional system of international justice, guaranteeing accountability for violations of international rules, offers guarantees for the rules-based international order that we all regard as fundamental”, he stressed.
He also said that this attack on the ICC risked “undermining years of efforts to ensure accountability for crimes around the world”.
Reactions from MEPs were mixed. Francisco Assis (S&D, Portuguese) called for immediate action: “the activation of the blocking statute has become a categorical imperative” to protect the ICC from US sanctions.
This law enables the EU to counter extraterritorial sanctions by prohibiting European companies and institutions from complying with them. It had already been used against US measures targeting Iran.
Similarly, Mounir Satouri (Greens/EFA, French), who called for this lever to be activated at a press conference earlier in the day (see EUROPE 13577/3), urged the EU to act.
Alice Teodorescu Måwe (EPP, Swedish) denounced the ICC’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, saying it “equates the monstrous attack by Hamas with the defence of Israel”, which she described as “provocative and wrong”. Italian MEP Alessandro Ciriani (ECR) echoed this view, denouncing an instrumentalisation of the ICC.
Raquel García Hermida-Van Der Walle (Renew Europe, Spanish), for her part, pointed the finger at the attitude of certain Member States which had not condemned Donald Trump’s sanctions.
She asked the Presidency of the EU Council: “Will you directly reprimand Member States that undermine international law? Will your Presidency seek strong, unconditional and unanimous support for the ICC?”
“These sanctions are an invitation (...) to violate human rights on a large scale with impunity”, also insisted Catarina Vieira (Greens/EFA, Portuguese).
At the end of the debate, Michael McGrath pledged the EU’s commitment to “protect the vital institutions of international justice, which it has helped to create and which it has supported over the years”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)