In a debate in the UK House of Lords on Monday, 12 January 2009, Lord Malloch-Brown, a UK Foreign Office Minister, remarked in response to questions from members including Lord Waddington, a former Secretary of State for the Home Office: “Mindful of the clear judgment of the Court of First Instance of 4th December 2008 annulling the July 2008 listing of the PMOI, the UK believes that EU member states must observe and respect the Courts judgement in the current review of the EU list of terrorist organisations.” He added, “At the end of this month there will be a decision by Ministers at the European level on this issue… Let me be clear that we very much hope in light of the Court decision that when the list arises before Ministers, ideally it would not contain the PMOI on it.”
Lord Waddington stressed that the British government should have vetoed the inclusion of the PMOI in the EU terror list at the Council of Ministers after the judgements of the British courts. He said, “The British government’s excuse for abstaining on that particular occasion namely that they had to vote for either the whole list of terrorist organisations or against the whole list, was wholly spurious…” Lord Malloch-Brown replied that it was up to the Presidency “of the European Council at that time to determine how business is dealt with of this kind and they indeed gave a whole list and there was no option but to have voted up or down…”
The Committee in Search of Justice (ISJ) which is supported by over 2,000 parliamentarians from across Europe welcomes Lord Malloch-Brown’s remarks. In view of alarming reports about the French government’s efforts to circumvent the rulings of the European Court of First Instance (CFI), ISJ would like to emphasize the following:
1. The court rulings and the EU treaty leave no doubt that the PMOI is no longer in the terror list. An appeal, if and when it is made, cannot delay the ruling’s implementation and any hesitation or delay in recognizing this fact by the Council of Europe will amount to an obstruction of justice, and per paragraph 44 of the 4 December 2008 ruling, will be a misuse of powers or procedures.
2. The 4 December 2008 CFI ruling referred to the pleas made before the Court by the PMOI lawyers that by virtue of the fact the Council had proceeded by means of an overall vote on the whole list, without providing for the possibility of a vote on particular individuals or organisations, it had acted unlawfully and that this mover had to be considered as a misuse both of powers and of procedures. If France has imposed such a vote on the Council then it cannot be for any reason other than to maintain the PMOI on the terror list as a service to the mullahs’ regime in Iran. We, parliamentarians from across Europe, ask the French government to clearly explain its position on Lord Malloch-Brown’s remarks so to clarify the roots of a disgraceful scandal in circumventing the law.
3. Based on the EU treaty, all EU member states have a legal obligation, as do most EU states based on national laws, to prevent France or any other country from imposing such an illegal action on the Council and European Union. Each country is responsible for decisions taken in not only the Council of Europe, but also for preceding decisions taken in working groups such as CP931, the clearinghouse, or COREPER, and should not allow their representatives in such meetings to consent to France’s illegal request to keep the PMOI on the terror list.
4. We request the Czech Presidency of the EU to avoid any ambiguity or possibility of misuse of procedures, and to not allow a rubber stamp of an important issue such as the terror list which concerns the lives, livelihood, integrity, and security of so many people, as it was done in the Council of Environment Ministers (29 June 2007), Ministers of Agriculture (21 December 2007 and 15 July 2008). We request that the issue of the terror list be removed from Point A and be directly discussed in the Council of Ministers meeting.