Judgment of the General Court of 14 December 2018 — Hamas v Council

(Case T-400/10 RENV) ¹

(Common foreign and security policy — Restrictive measures against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism — Freezing of funds — Possibility for an authority of a non-member State to be classified as a competent authority within the meaning of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP — Factual basis of the decisions to freeze funds — Duty to state reasons — Error of assessment — Right to effective judicial protection — Rights of the defence — Right to property)

Language of the case: French

Parties

Applicant: Hamas (Doha, Qatar) (represented by: L. Glock, lawyer)

Defendant: Council of the European Union (represented by: B. Driessen, M. Bishop and A. Sikora-Kalėda, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: French Republic (represented by: D. Colas and F. Fize, acting as Agents), and European Commission (represented initially by F. Castillo de la Torre, M. Konstantinidis and R. Tricot, and subsequently by F. Castillo de la Torre, L. Baumgart and C. Zadra, acting as Agents)

Re:

Action under Article 263 TFEU seeking annulment, first, of the Council Notice for the attention of the persons, groups and entities whose names were included in the list provided for in Article 2(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism (OJ 2010 C 188, p. 13), of Council Decision 2010/386/CFSP of 12 July 2010 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism (OJ 2010 L 178, p. 28) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 610/2010 of 12 July 2010 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1285/2009 (OJ 2010 L 178, p. 1), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, secondly, of Council Decision 2011/70/CFSP of 31 January 2011 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism (OJ 2011, L 28, p. 57) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 83/2011 of 31 January 2011 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 610/2010 (OJ 2011, L 28, p. 14), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, thirdly, of Council Decision 2011/430/CFSP of 18 July 2011 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism (OJ 2011 L 188, p. 47) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 687/2011 of 18 July 2011 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulations No 610/2010 and No 83/2011 (OJ 2011 L 188, p. 2), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, fourthly, of Council Decision 2011/872/CFSP of 22 December 2011 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2011/430 (OJ 2011, L 343, p. 54) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1375/2011 of 22 December 2011 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) No 687/2011 (OJ 2011 L 343, p. 10), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, fifthly, of Council Decision 2012/333/CFSP of 25 June 2012 updating the list of persons groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2011/872 (OJ 2012 L 165, p. 72) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 542/2012 of 25 June 2012 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 1375/2011 (OJ 2012 L 165, p. 12), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, sixthly, of Council Decision 2012/765/CFSP of 10 December 2012 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2012/333 (OJ 2012 L 337, p. 50) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1169/2012 of 10 December 2012 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 542/2012 (OJ 2012 L 337, p. 2), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, seventhly, Council Decision 2013/395/CFSP of 25 July 2013 updating and amending the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2012/765 (OJ 2013 L 201, p. 57) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 714/2013 of 25 July 2013 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 1169/2012 (OJ 2013 L 201, p. 10), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, eighthly, Council Decision 2014/72/CFSP of 10 February 2014 updating and amending the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2013/395 (OJ 2014 L 40, p. 56) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 125/2014 of 10 February 2014 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 714/2013 (OJ 2014 L 40, p. 9), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, ninthly, Council Decision 2014/483/CFSP of 22 July 2014 updating and amending the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision 2014/72 (OJ 2014 L 217, p. 35) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 790/2014 of 22 July 2014 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation No 125/2014 (OJ 2014 L 217, p. 1), in so far as those measures concern the applicant, and tenthly, Council Decision (CFSP) 2017/1426 of 4 August 2017 updating the list of persons, groups and entities subject to Articles 2, 3 and 4 of Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Decision (CFSP) 2017/154 (OJ 2017 L 204, p. 95) and of Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1420 of 4 August 2017 implementing Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 on specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities with a view to combating terrorism and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/150 (OJ 2017 L 204, p. 3), in so far as those measures concern the applicant.

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders Hamas to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the Council of the European Union;

Orders the French Republic and the European Commission to bear their own costs.

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¹ OJ C 317, 20.11.2010.