Brussels/Luxembourg - The European Union will continue to view the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation despite a court ruling Thursday saying the PKK should be removed from the blacklist. The EU Council in Brussels stressed the listing would continue and PKK assets would remain frozen despite the European Court of First Instance ruling in Luxembourg earlier in the day. The council would give the group its reasoning for doing so, a spokesman said.
The Luxembourg court ruled that the 2002 decision to blacklist the PKK was illegal under EU law, as the EU had failed to tell the PKK in advance of the decision, as required.
A court spokesman said Thursday's ruling was on "procedural grounds" against the PKK, which has been fighting Turkish troops in its campaign for greater autonomy.
Fifty-four individuals and 48 groups remain on the the terrorist blacklist, including the Basque separatist ETA organisation, the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and the Palestinian Hamas organisation.
