Atti di forze armate e terrorismo in tempo di conflitto possono coincidere? La sentenza della Corte di giustizia nel caso A et al. (C-158/14).

In A et al. v. Minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, the Court of Justice of the European Union has been called upon for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation and validity of a decision taken by the Council in 2006 to include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the list of terrorists in pursuance of the UN Security Council Resolution n. 1373(2001). The decision has constituted the basis for the adoption of designation orders in respect of A et al. resulting in the freezing of their respective financial resources. According to the referring national court, there is an international consensus regarding the fact that actions committed by armed forces during periods of armed conflict, within the meaning of international humanitarian law, are not to be regarded as terrorist activities. The national court, therefore, asked the Court of Justice for clarification regarding the definition of ‘terrorist acts’ in order to ascertain whether possible inconsistencies between that definition in EU law and in international law may affect the validity of the implementing regulation in question. The conclusions reached by the Court may represent an important step towards the conciliation between international humanitarian law and counter-terrorism measures as well as a further element of discussion with reference to the relationship between international and EU law.