The European Union disagrees with the United States over whether several groups around the world are terrorist organizations and has blocked the assets of fewer groups than the United States, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Dec. 19).

EU officials have blocked the assets of only two of 28 groups that the United States has identified as non-al-Qaeda terrorist groups, and the union has targeted only eight of several dozen individuals on the U.S. terrorist list, the AP reported (David Kalish, Associated Press/Washington Times, March 8).

At the end of December, the United States had named 189 groups and individuals that it said were linked to terrorism (see GSN, Jan. 30).  The entities included Middle Eastern militant Islamist groups, South American militant organizations, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, companies suspected of channeling funds to terrorists and others (State Department release, Dec. 31, 2001).

The European Union did not block the assets of several of those groups, including the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, the Shining Path in Peru, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and even several European groups that the union lists as terrorists, including the Basque ETA in Spain, the Real IRA in Ireland and the Revolutionary Organization 17 November in Greece, according to the Times.

Some EU members said legal questions, an unclear definition of terrorism and reluctance to support governments with poor human rights records as reasons the union has not completely followed the U.S. list.  For example, after the United States froze the assets of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, EU officials decided to block the assets of the group’s “terrorist wing” but not its political leaders, the Times reported.

“As you expand and broaden the definition of terrorism, you are likely to also expand the likelihood of disagreement between countries over who should be included and how to deal with it,” said Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution (see GSN, Nov. 6, 2001).

“In those few cases where the United States has taken action and our friends and allies have not, we are working internationally on several fronts to encourage other blocking countries to take action as well,” said Tasia Scolinos, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The United Kingdom blocked the assets of more U.S.-listed groups than the European Union, including Aum Shinrikyo and the Real IRA.  The Bush administration has said that 149 countries have frozen more than $104 million of assets owned by groups and individuals on the U.S. terrorism list (Kalish, Associated Press/Washington Times).

Meanwhile, the United States has not yet ratified the U.N. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, although the United States signed the convention in 1999 (see GSN, Feb. 4).  While 132 countries have signed the convention, only 21 have ratified it, and it has not entered into force (U.N. release, March 8).

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