After the deadline for appeal to a July ruling lapsed, the General Court of the European Union has once again ordered that the block immediately lift all sanctions on the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).
NITC is the largest oil tanker company in Iran, and successfully challenged EU sanctions on the grounds that they are a private company owned by a privately-run pension company, not a state-run entity covered by sanctions on the Iranian government.
The court gave the EU 90 days to appeal, which they insisted they planned on doing, but which they never actually did. Despite this, EU officials insist they will continue to try to find ways to keep NITC on the blacklist.
Doing so seems like it’s going to be difficult, however, with the company having already decisively won their court challenge. The missing of the appeal deadline does not appear to have been an oversight, either, but rather a reflection of the lack of any basis to appeal.
This is just great – now the EU considers itself above the law, similar to the attitude and actions of the US. Anarchy would be a definition on the positive side, but I´m afraid these two are being pulled further and further down into the darkness.
I don't see the logic of claiming that "the EU considers itself above the law" when the court decision in question comes from an EU court! In fact, the Member States are already starting to lift sanctions. The UK, always prompt to comply with court decisions, has already done so.
"The missing of the appeal deadline does not appear to have been an oversight, either, but rather a reflection of the lack of any basis to appeal."
Perhaps it's more that the EU didn't really want to appeal since they regard the sanctions on Iran as yet more USGBS.
Another example of the "Putin Effect". Iran is slowly but surely coming in from the cold.
When will the so called "civilized world" slap sanctions on the biggest terrorist of them all, JSIL (Jewish State of Israel in the Levant)