The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has urged the European Commission to protect prominent figures defending international law from the sanctions imposed by the US government and has requested the immediate activation of the Blocking Statute, the European Union’s main instrument to neutralize the effects of foreign sanctions on European territory, as he himself revealed on the social network X.
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Since February 2025, the United States has sanctioned in successive rounds eleven judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court, and in July 2025 began applying these measures against Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Precisely, Albanese is in Madrid this Wednesday, where she has met with the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, and the ministers of Social Rights, Health, and Childhood, all from Sumar, and in the afternoon with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares.
After meeting with Díaz, the rapporteur thanked the Government for its support as well as its backing in the “fight against the genocide” that she claims Israel is practicing in Palestine. “I am happy to be here in Spain, taking advantage of the solidarity, not only of the Spanish people but also of the Spanish institutions. I woke up with good news that touches me deeply: that President Sánchez spoke out against the US sanctions against me,” she said.
“Spain does not look the other way. Sanctioning those who defend international justice is putting the entire human rights system at risk,” warned the head of the Executive in a message on X. “The EU cannot remain with its arms crossed in the face of this persecution,” he added, announcing that the Government has asked 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.”
According to the Executive, Sánchez, in a letter addressed to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, warned that these sanctions “set a very worrying precedent that compromises the independent functioning of institutions essential for international justice.”
The pressure measures authorized by President Donald Trump include the cancellation of bank accounts and services, travel restrictions, and all kinds of obstacles to prevent them from doing their work: investigating and prosecuting human rights violations.
In February, Germany and France demanded the resignation precisely of the rapporteur Francesca Albanese for very harsh statements against Israel during a conference organized in Doha by Al Jazeera. The rapporteur stated that it was a “challenge” that “instead of stopping Israel, most countries in the world armed it, provided political excuses, a political umbrella, and economic and financial support.” She then referred to a “common enemy” in this context, which she did not identify.
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Traditionally, according to the Government Presidency, the so-called Blocking Statute has served to protect European economic operators against the extraterritorial application of third-country laws that affect the interests of the EU (currently applied to certain US regulations).
In the letter addressed to the Community Executive, the Government suggests that it is time for this mechanism to “go beyond the commercial logic with which it was created” and serve as a shield against measures that put the system at risk.
To carry this out, they add, the European Union would have to include the harmful foreign regulation in the annex of the Regulation. In this case, Spain requests the incorporation of several US executive orders, issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act, on which the sanctions are based.
The letter recalls that the International Criminal Court plays an essential role in the fight against impunity and accountability for the most atrocious crimes (genocide, war crimes, aggression, and crimes against humanity), and that United Nations Special Rapporteurs play a key role in investigating allegations of human rights violations. Therefore, the sanctions not only affect their holders but also “erode the entire normative architecture that supports international relations,” Sánchez emphasizes.
Spain, they emphasize from the Presidency, is already working to gather the support of other member states “committed to international justice and the defense of human rights” to form a coalition that supports the request to the Commission. In addition, they add, it will promote the inclusion of this issue on the agenda of the European Council on June 18 and 19, with the aim that its Conclusions include an explicit political mandate to the Commission.
“Our shared commitment to International Law requires a decisive and coherent response,” Pedro Sánchez states in his letter to Von der Leyen.
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