Venezuela Condemns European Union’s Ruling on Illegal Sanctions
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry expressed its condemnation of the ruling of the General Court of the European Union that dismissed an appeal filed by Venezuela against the EU’s illegal sanctions against the Venezuelan people, imposed in 2017 through EU Regulation 2017/2063.
On February 6, 2018, Venezuela filed a legal action before the General Court of the European Union seeking the annulment of Regulation 2017/2063. On Wednesday, September 13, 2023, the European General Court (EGC) dismissed Venezuela’s appeal against illegal sanctions imposed by the EU a year earlier. The ruling was announced by the EGC in a statement.
The appeal was made against the European Union’s broad and far-reaching unilateral coercive measures that have impacted the entire Venezuelan population. However, the EGC announced that it “rejected all of Venezuela’s arguments in support of its demand” for annulment of said unilateral measures.
#Comunicado Venezuela rechaza categĂłricamente el adefesio jurĂdico, contrario al derecho internacional, emanado del Tribunal General de la UniĂłn Europea en respuesta a las legĂtimas acciones de nuestro paĂs frente a la ilegal imposiciĂłn de medidas coercitivas unilaterales. pic.twitter.com/t0jnhzDKEV
— Yvan Gil (@yvangil) September 15, 2023
The General Court of European Union has two departments: the Court of Justice dealing with requests for preliminary rulings from national courts, and certain actions for annulment and appeals; and the General Court dealing with legal actions for annulment brought by individuals, companies and, in some cases, EU governments.
According to the EGC, “Venezuela had no right to be heard prior to the adoption of the disputed measures, which constitute measures of general application.” The right to be heard, the court added, “applies to individual measures adopted with respect to a person and cannot be invoked in relation to the adoption of measures of general application.”
Venezuela condemned this ruling as “absurd,” and criticized the EGC for trying to normalize the application of unilateral coercive measures against entire populations. “In this absurd ruling, the Court intends to recognize the European Union’s unusual power to intervene in internal affairs of other States and to adopt unilateral coercive measures against third States not belonging to the Union; attributing to it a kind of universal punitive power, which openly and flagrantly undermines the Charter of the United Nations and the bases of International Law,” the Venezuelan response stated.
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The unofficial translation of the Venezuelan statement is provided below.
Venezuela categorically rejects judicial ruling in favor of the European Union
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically rejects the legal absurdity, devoid of the slightest rationality, issued by the General Court of the European Union on September 13, 2023, in response to the legitimate actions of Venezuela against the abusive and illegal imposition of unilateral coercive measures on the country.
In this absurd ruling, the Court intends to recognize the European Union’s unusual power to intervene in the internal affairs of and to adopt unilateral coercive measures against third States not belonging to the Union; attributing to it a kind of universal punitive power, which openly and flagrantly undermines the Charter of the United Nations and the bases of International Law.
This decision contradicts centuries of jurisprudence and peaceful doctrine of international law that have allowed the consolidation and development of the principles that govern relations between States, such as the right to self-determination and the non-interference in internal affairs of States. Furthermore, it ignores the Resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council that have condemned the imposition of unilateral coercive measures, taking into account their devastating impact on human rights.
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela reserves all legal, diplomatic and political actions to reject this crazy decision of a clearly neocolonialist and imperialist nature. At the same time, it calls on the institutions of the European Union to abandon, once and for all, the abominable arrogance that characterizes its relations with the peoples of the world, which it previously dominated by force and today intends to control and plunder economically, instrumentalizing justice for political purposes.
Caracas, September 15, 2023
Featured image: People protesting in Greece with a torn Europe Union flag during protests against neoliberal austerity measures in 2015. Photo: AP/File photo.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
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