EU General Court annuls Hamas 2018 designation for procedural flaws

The General Court has annulled the March 2018 listing of Hamas  in Case T-308/18 (4 September 2019) because the statement of reasons for including Hamas was defective – it was unsigned, had no heading, and could not be identified as an act of the EU Council. The President of the Council and Secretary General are required to sign Council acts when they are adopted under Article 15 of the Council’s Rules of Procedure, as adopted by Council Decision  2009/937. The Court held that failing to do so constituted an infringement of an essential procedural requirement in breach of Article 263 TFEU and that without the 2 signatures, the applicant couldn’t verify that the designation had been adopted by the Council.

Hamas’ previous challenges to its 2010 – 2014 listings (Case T-400/10 RENV, see post) and its 2015 listings (Case T-289/14,  see post) were rejected.