The government has noted, with concern, Thursday’s decision of the European Court of Justice to annul the EU regulations proscribing the LTTE. Issuing a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs noted that the ECJ judgment requires in-depth study by all the defendant parties.

The defendants of this case have been the Council and Commission of the European Union, together with two member states; the Netherlands and the UK.

The statement added that it is noteworthy that the Court has stressed the annulments to be “on fundamentally procedural grounds” and “do not imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of the LTTE as a terrorist group.”

The Ministry of External Affairs further observed from the decision of the ECJ that “the effects of the annulled measures are maintained temporarily in order to ensure the effectiveness of any possible future freezing of funds”.

The statement further noted that, conscious of the fact that the listing of the LTTE is a matter internal to the EU, Sri Lanka is confident that the European Commission and the EU Member States will take the best possible decision on the future course of action to be taken in this regard, in accordance with their own legal architecture in preserving sovereignty.

The EU proscribed the LTTE as a terrorist organisation in May 2006, and has remained on its list of terrorist entities ever since. Apart from the EU, the LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the USA, India, Canada, the UK and Sri Lanka.

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