We are still waiting for evidence that the European Union’s sanctions against Russia are making a difference and helping to end the terror war against Ukraine. The example given by France’s Nicolas Guillou shows how effective US sanctions can be. He is a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and, like some 15,000 others, many of whom are linked to terrorist organizations, is on the US sanctions list.
There he found himself with five other judges and three prosecutors from the International Court of Justice as he issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the crackdown on the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.
A few days ago, Guillou explained in detail what the sanctions mean in an interview with “Le Monde”: Of course, he cannot enter the United States, America and American companies are prohibited from having business contacts with him. His accounts on Amazon, Airbnb, and Paypal were closed. When he booked a hotel in France through the travel portal Expedia (which is owned by American Expedia Group), he was told hours later that his booking had been canceled because he was on the sanctions list.
“From day to day you no longer have a bank card”
You can hardly order anything online anymore, “because you don’t know if the package containing the product came from the US,” Guillou said. Online banking is also very restricted: transactions in dollars are outdated, non-US banks also exclude those on the US list, and you have to say goodbye to credit cards from American Express, Visa or Mastercard: “Day by day you no longer have a bank card, and these companies have a virtual monopoly, at least in Europe.”
If it is effective against warmongers, terrorists and criminals, it could be considered a benefit of a values-based world order; Instead, the Trump administration is using it to destroy the rule of law – all over the world. The judge was declared an enemy of the state.
Europeans appear weak against the monopoly of power held by companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Paramount Skydance and X. But this will only happen if they allow themselves to be led to believe that they are powerless. But apparently not. Judge Guillou said that the EU Blocking Regulation could conflict with its sanctions. This regulation prohibits following foreign directives if they conflict with EU interests and values. Isn’t it worth a try?
