The Belgian Justice Minister, Annelies Verlinden, called for the European Union to give a "strong and united" response to the US sanctions against four judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Verlinden (CD&V) made the appeal on Thursday upon her arrival at the meeting of EU justice ministers in Luxembourg.
Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on four ICC judges for "actively participating in the unfounded actions of the Criminal Court against the US or its ally Israel." The sanctions freeze the assets of the targeted judges in the United States.
According to Verlinden, the judges are being targeted "simply because they were performing their legal duties" under the Rome Statute. "This is not just a political disagreement, but a direct attack on the independence of our judiciary and our fundamental values," she said.
Verlinden urged for a "strong, united and determined political response" from the EU and its Member States. She called on Member States to reaffirm their "unwavering support for the ICC" and reject "the use of sanctions to intimidate or obstruct international law."
While the subject is not on the agenda of Thursday's Council of Ministers, Verlinden wants to use the opportunity to discuss a response to the sanctions. "How we want to respond and what statement we want to make against war crimes, international organised crime and terrorism," she elaborated.
"This is a test of our principles [...] The integrity of international law and our role in defending it is at stake," she added.
The Justice Minister is calling for a discussion in the Council, specifically on how the extraterritorial impact of the US sanctions can be addressed collectively, especially since one of the judges, a Slovenian, is an EU citizen.
She further called for "an urgent review" by the European Commission of the applicability of the blocking regulation, to examine how to "protect EU citizens and institutions from the effects of such unilateral actions."
Slovenia had called for the invocation of the "blocking statute", with which the EU wants to protect European companies from the consequences of sanctions imposed by third countries that it considers illegal. The Commission did not respond to this request for the time being but said it would monitor the effects of the sanctions before considering any further steps.
