Sánchez asks Von der Leyen to prevent Trump’s sanctions against Albanese and the ICC from affecting the EU

Eduardo González Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to prevent the sanctions imposed by the United States against the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, and against judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from affecting the EU. As reported by Moncloa Palace on Wednesday, Sánchez contacted the Commission President to request the immediate activation of the Blocking Statute, a mechanism that allows the EU to suspend third-country laws that affect its interests. Spain is already working to garner the support of other member states to form a coalition to back this initiative. "Spain will not look the other way," Sánchez posted on social media. "Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk," he declared. “The EU cannot stand idly by in the face of this persecution,” he warned. “That is why today we are asking the Commission to activate the Blocking Statute to protect the independence of the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, and their actions to end the genocide in Gaza,” he announced. Since February 2025, the United States has sanctioned eleven judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court in successive rounds, and in July 2025 began applying these measures against Francesca Albanese. “To address this situation, Spain has requested the immediate activation of the Blocking Statute, the European Union’s main instrument for neutralizing the effects of foreign sanctions on European territory,” Moncloa stated. In his letter to Von der Leyen, Pedro Sánchez warns that the sanctions “set a very worrying precedent that compromises the independent functioning of institutions essential to international justice.” The pressure tactics authorized by President Donald Trump include the cancellation of bank accounts and services, travel restrictions, and all manner of obstacles to prevent them from doing their job: investigating and prosecuting human rights violations. Traditionally, Regulation (EC) No 2271/1996, known as the Blocking Statute, has served to protect European economic operators against the extraterritorial application of third-country laws that affect the interests of the European Union (it currently applies to certain US laws). In its letter to the Commission, the Spanish Government argues that it is time for this mechanism to “move beyond the commercial logic for which it was created” and serve as a shield against measures that jeopardize the multilateral system based on the UN Charter and international law. To achieve this, the European Union would have to include the harmful foreign law in the Regulation's annex. In this case, Spain is requesting the inclusion of several US executive orders, issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act, which underpin the sanctions. The letter recalls that the International Criminal Court “has an essential role in the fight against impunity and in ensuring accountability for the most heinous crimes (genocide, war crimes, aggression, and crimes against humanity), and that the United Nations Special Rapporteurs play a key role in investigating allegations of human rights violations.” Therefore, the sanctions not only affect those who impose them, but also “erode the entire normative framework that underpins international relations,” warns Sánchez. According to Moncloa, Spain is already working to garner the support of other member states committed to international justice and the defense of human rights in order to form a coalition to back the request before the Commission. Furthermore, he will promote the inclusion of this matter on the agenda of the European Council meeting of June 18 and 19, 2026, with the aim of ensuring that its Conclusions include an explicit political mandate for the Commission. “Our shared commitment to International Law demands a decisive and coherent response,” Pedro Sánchez states in his letter to Von der Leyen. According to the Prime Minister, the activation of the Blocking Statute is an opportunity to continue strengthening real and effective European sovereignty, beyond the protection of economic interests. Following Sánchez's announcement, Albanese posted a message on social media: “Thank you, President Sánchez, for your words, for your principled stance, and for trying to pull Europe back from the abyss,” she wrote. Francesca Albanese was received this Wednesday in Madrid by the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, and by the Ministers of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, and of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego. “It's always a pleasure to see Francesca again,” the leader of Sumar posted on social media. “Albanese represents courage in the face of the institutional cowardice we are experiencing,” she stated. “We have been saying this for a long time: the European Union must break all agreements with the genocidal state of Israel,” she insisted. “Spain has been left alone in the face of this abomination” Albanese herself declared to the press this Wednesday, after visiting the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid to view Pablo Picasso’s painting 'Guernica,' that the sanctions imposed by the US against her demonstrate that “no one is safe” from those who defend Israel’s interests. “Even criminals are allowed to defend themselves and are guaranteed due process, and we are not,” she denounced. “Today it happens to me, but tomorrow it could happen to members of your government or your judges. It is a mafia-style intimidation technique to silence people, to force them to comply with the rules,” she warned. The UN rapporteur lamented the situation in which “Europe has been left three years after the genocide in Gaza: an institution that puts markets, private interests, and those of corporations above people, their rights, and civil life.” “That is why we cannot see what the Spanish government is doing as a simple act of solidarity with the Palestinians; it is an act of preserving what remains of our democracies,” continued Albanese, who expressed her hope that Spain, which has been left “practically alone in the face of this abomination,” will represent “the beginning of a change from within Europe toward a decolonized multilateralism.” The Flotilla Furthermore, the rapporteur again strongly criticized the “impunity” enjoyed by Israel, with particular attention to the attack and kidnapping of the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters of the Mediterranean. “In Europe, Israel has ventured up to a thousand kilometers out to sea from its coast to kidnap people who were not traveling to Israel,” she denounced. “Israeli prisons are torture centers, and now a European citizen and a Brazilian citizen are inside those prisons,” she recalled, referring to activists Saif Abukeshek and Thiago Ávila. “They must be released immediately,” and to achieve this, “all the necessary pressure must come from Europe.” In a message on social media, Francesca Albanese denounced on Wednesday that “Thiago and Saif were kidnapped and are being illegally detained by a state known for the torture and ill-treatment it inflicts on thousands of Palestinians.”

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