In a first jab at the White House, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa said the U.S. president’s move to target the International Criminal Court undermines global justice.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa on Friday blasted U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose aggressive economic sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In their first swipe at the new U.S. administration, the EU heavyweights said Trump’s move weakened justice at a global level.
“The ICC guarantees accountability for international crimes and gives a voice to victims worldwide,” von der Leyen wrote in a post on X. “It must be able to freely pursue the fight against global impunity. Europe will always stand for justice and the respect of international law.”
Trump’s order is seen as a response to the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Netanyahu, a longtime Trump ally, this week became the first world leader to visit the U.S. president after his inauguration and spent Thursday meeting with lawmakers in the country’s Congress.
Costa similarly criticized Trump’s action, which, he wrote, “undermines the international criminal justice system as a whole.”
Costa and von der Leyen have taken a cautious communications approach to Trump since his reelection and have so far avoided direct confrontations with the U.S. president.
The Council president met with ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane on Thursday, just hours before Trump signed an executive order to impose asset freezes and travel bans against ICC staff and their family members if they are determined to be involved in efforts to investigate U.S. citizens and the country’s allies.
Trump this week declared that Palestinians should be removed from Gaza when hostilities conclude so that the U.S. can “own” the coastal enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
A senior EU official told POLITICO that the ICC’s Akane discussed the long-anticipated U.S. sanctions during the meeting with Costa, as well as the ways in which the EU could strengthen its support for the Court.
The Commission and Council presidents’ posts were expressly intended to reaffirm the EU’s commitment to the ICC and international law, the official added.
The official confirmed that while everything Trump says is taken seriously, there is a strategic focus on responding only to concrete actions like the issuance of Thursday’s executive order targeting the Court.
