Ambassadors back EU joining court to prosecute Russian aggression

Prefer on Google by Chris Powers A European Union (EU) flag next to the European Commission building in Brussels, Belgium, on Nov. 10, 2023. (Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Ambassadors of the EU 27 countries agreed in a meeting on April 29 that the EU should sign up to a Council of Europe special tribunal dedicated to prosecuting Russia's leadership for the international crime of aggression against Ukraine. The special tribunal has now passed the critical threshold of 16 Council of Europe countries, required for it to become operational. Once in place, the court will prosecute the specific international crime of aggression, which falls outside of the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The crime was first legally presented and prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials against the leadership of Nazi Germany at the end of the Second World War. The European Commission has pushed for the EU to sign up in its own right. In return for offering financial and logistical support, the EU would get a say over how the tribunal operates, an initiative it has been committed to from the beginning, and to which it has provided 10 million euros ($11.7 million) to fund the preparatory work. Now that ambassadors have given their approval, the proposal needs to go to national ministers of the EU 27, which will take the final vote. This is expected to happen at a meeting of economy ministers on May 5. On April 30, the European Parliament is also expected to vote through its endorsement of the EU signing on to the special tribunal in its own right. Foreign ministers of the 46 Council of Europe member states are set to meet on May 15 in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau. There, they are expected to conclude an Agreement on the Management Committee of the Special Tribunal, at which point the work of selecting judges can begin. The Ukrainian government expects the tribunal to become fully operational in 2027.