The Council of Europe and the European Union have signed an agreement on the financing of an advance team to establish the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, the Strasbourg-based organisation announced on Saturday 23 January.
This agreement provides for the release by the EU - represented at the signing by Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the Commission, and Michael McGrath, European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law - of an initial instalment of €10 million, mobilised through the European Commission’s foreign policy instruments and intended to finance this “advance team”.
A joint project led by the Council of Europe, this team will be responsible for preparing the institutional, logistical and organisational foundations of the Special Tribunal, which will be mandated to prosecute the senior political and military leaders responsible for the crime of aggression.
On the one hand, it will have to lay the groundwork for the election of the Tribunal’s judges and prosecutor and, on the other, draw up its rules of procedure and evidence as well as its management system.
It will also support mobilisation efforts to strengthen international support.
Based on a bilateral Ukraine-Council of Europe agreement signed in Strasbourg on 25 June 2025, this Special Tribunal - backed by a vote of the European Parliament in January 2023 - will be complementary to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“The Council of Europe will determinedly work together with the European Union and other key partners around the world to uphold the values that we hold dear, to ensure respect for international law and to make sure that violence and impunity do not prevail”, said Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, welcoming the signing of the agreement.
For Kaja Kallas, “the European Union’s release of the first €10 million to help set up a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is a concrete step towards justice. Russia’s leaders are responsible for this war, and they must be held accountable. There can be no impunity”.
Link to the website of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine: https://aeur.eu/f/keq (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)