Parliament’s recognition makes the Commission’s refusal to activate the Blocking Statute indefensible.
Brussels, 22 October 2026
No Peace Without Justice congratulates the European Parliament on awarding the 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the International Criminal Court, and congratulates the Court, its judges and its Prosecutor on a recognition earned at great personal cost.
In naming the Court, the only institution of the European Union elected directly by Europe’s citizens has identified it with the freedoms and the rule of law that the Union exists to defend. The message to the European Commission could not be clearer.
While Parliament honours the Court, the Commission still refuses to use the one instrument it already holds to protect it. The United States has sanctioned the Court’s judges and Prosecutor for performing their judicial functions and has announced further measures against the institution itself. The Commission can shield European citizens and companies from those measures by activating and extending the EU Blocking Statute, Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96. It has chosen dialogue and delay instead.
The Union cannot honour the Court in Strasbourg and leave it undefended in Brussels. The Sakharov Prize settles the argument the Commission has been avoiding: the Court embodies the European legal order, and defending it is the defence of that order.
We congratulate the Parliament. We now call on the Commission to follow it, and to activate the Blocking Statute.
No Peace Without Justice is an international non-profit organisation founded by Emma Bonino and Marco Pannella, born of a 1993 campaign of the Transnational Radical Party, that works for the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and international justice. It is a founding and steering committee member of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court and has special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
