Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization—European Union

The European Union has “agreed in principle” to the idea of listing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [hereinafter LTTE] as a terrorist group.^[1] The LTTE is based in Sri Lanka. The LTTE had threatened earlier in the week, when the United States urged the EU to so designate the group,^[2] that doing would worsen conditions of war, perhaps sending the island into “all-out civil war.”^[3]

Nonetheless, a “formal decision on the blacklisting ‘could come extremely quickly,’ perhaps as early [as] next week.”^[4] Some of the 25 EU member nations feared that a ban could prompt the Tigers to pull out of the peace process altogether, but the EU’s expected move would be just one more group of nations to outlaw the group: the United States designated the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997, five years after India did so, and Canada joined in last month.^[5]

If the EU does designate the LTTE as a terrorist group, it will have a similar effect as when the United States does it: the organizations funds are frozen and access to them cannot be had.^[6] The EU’s list includes ETA, the IRA, GRAPO, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other “revolutionary activist groups, as well as the names of individuals belonging to such groups.”^[7] Osama bin Laden and his associates do not appear on the list, however, but that is because they are covered by another document.^[8]

By designating an organization as a terrorist group, the Member States “are to afford each other assistance in preventing and combating terrorist attacks,” and the names on the list are to be reviewed at regular intervals, at least once every six months.^[9]

---

[1] Manjula Fernando, European Union Agrees in Principle to Ban LTTE, Daily News (Sri Lanka), May 19, 2006.
[2] See US to Persuade EU to Ban LTTE, Indo Asian News Service (via Yahoo! India), May 17, 2006.
[3] See EU Ban on LTTE Will Worsen “War Conditions,” Reuters (via Gulf Times), May 19, 2006.
[4] EU Agrees in Principle to Ban Sri Lankan Rebels, Agence France-Presse, May 19, 2006.
[5] Id.
[6] See Freezing Funds: List of Terrorists and Terrorist Groups, EU, June 29, 2005 (last visited May 19, 2006).
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.