MEPs demand protection for International Criminal Court

MEPs have demanded EU action to protect the International Criminal Court after the United States announced plans to impose sanctions on the institution.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs wants legal protections and practical support to ensure those targeted can still receive salaries and access banking, healthcare and digital services.

Its report, adopted in Strasbourg on Monday by 50 votes to 18, with four abstentions, calls for stronger European backing to prevent foreign pressure from obstructing international justice.

The vote follows a joint statement from leading MEPs earlier this month condemning the US announcement as an attack on the court’s independence.

“The US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) are an unacceptable assault on the foundations of international justice,” they said following the US statement on October 9,

“Targeting the Court as an institution crosses a fundamental red line, one that threatens the independence and integrity of a tribunal established to uphold accountability for the gravest crimes of concern to the international community.”

The MEPs urged the European Commission to immediately trigger the EU Blocking Statute to shield the court and European actors from the sanctions’ extraterritorial reach.

That demand is also central to the committee’s report, which calls for coordinated measures to counter the effects of foreign coercion within the EU.

The committee wants an action plan to safeguard access to essential services for affected individuals and organisations, including salaries, banking, insurance, healthcare and digital accounts.

The report’s author, French Greens/EFA MEP Mounir Satouri, said external pressure must not be allowed to obstruct investigations or deny victims justice.

“The EU must urgently deploy all instruments to protect the ICC, the UN and human rights defenders from coercion, ensuring that external pressure cannot obstruct investigations and judicial processes, nor deny victims their right to justice,” he said.

“Europe and the international community as a whole must act now to defend international law and uphold universal values”.

The report condemns foreign coercive measures targeting international judicial institutions, UN mandate holders and human rights organisations cooperating with them.

It also rejects pressure on countries to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the treaty underpinning the ICC.

The committee called for stronger financial, political, legal and operational support for the court, with that backing embedded in EU foreign policies and agreements with other countries.

It reiterated that EU member states, as parties to the Rome Statute, must cooperate fully with the ICC, including by executing its decisions and arrest warrants.

The report calls for EU action; it does not itself introduce the proposed protections.

The committee also welcomed progress towards establishing a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine under the Council of Europe. It said it awaited a Commission proposal enabling the EU to become a founding member.