Press Release, 18 December 2007
34 senior members of the EPP-ED at the European Parliament:
The EU’s Council of Ministers’ refusal to implement the ruling of the European Court of Justice to remove the PMOI from its terror list is unlawful and unacceptable. The PMOI should be removed from the list immediately.
34 senior Euro MPs from the group of the European People’s Party (EPP-ED), the largest group in the European Parliament, denounced the EU Council of Ministers’ illegal decision not to implement the ruling of the European Court of Justice which annulled the terrorist designation of the PMOI, the main Iranian opposition. They called for an end to this designation which was originally done, as they described it, for political reasons.
Signatories to the statement include three European Parliament Vice-Presidents, Heads of Delegations from 19 countries in the group and six Vice-Chairs of the group. The statement declared, " The defiance of the 12 December 2006 ruling by the European Communities’ Court of First Instance which annulled the Council of Minister’s decision to designate the PMOI in the list of banned organisations and the unlawful justifications by the Council not to implement the ruling, are unacceptable steps taken in line with the policy of appeasement towards the Iranian regime."
They stressed, "The events of the past two years have clearly shown that our efforts within the European Union to encourage Iran to moderate its policies have proved to be futile. The designation of the main Iranian opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI), in the European Union’s terrorist list was an attempt by the EU to encourage Iran to change its behaviour. This has been a total failure and it is now quite evident that the Iranian regime has been emboldened to pursue its policies as never before. "
By referring to the call by more than 2,000 lawmakers and 8,500 lawyers and jurists from across Europe to end the terrorist designation of the PMOI, the MEPs reiterated, " Even the broadest definitions of terrorism do not apply to the Organisation."
The MEPs urged their group, " To adopt a clear position on this issue and call for an end to this inappropriate policy and flagrant injustice." They also called "for the immediate implementation of the EU Court ruling and the removal of the PMOI from the EU’s terror list."
In a ruling on 30th November, a special court in Britain (the Proscribed Organisations Appeals Commission) described the PMOI’s proscription in that country as "perverse" and called on the British Home Secretary to remove the group from the list of proscribed organisations immediately. The British government’s appeal against the court ruling was rejected by the court on 14th December.
As the terrorist designation of the PMOI in European Union was essentially made on a request by the British government and the only national competent authority was the British Home Secretary, following the decision by the British court, the PMOI’s terror designation is not only null and void in Britain, but also in the EU.
Hence, minimum respect for the rule of law makes it imperative that the Council of Ministers remove the PMOI from the terrorist list immediately and therefore lift the legal burden placed on this organisation.