By a judgment of 4 September 2019, Hamas v Council, the General Court annulled four acts of the Council of the European Union adopted in 2018 by which Hamas was maintained on the list annexed to Common Position.

Hamas had been listed as an organisation involved in terrorist acts and was, on that basis, subject to measures freezing its funds and economic resources.

Although it rejected seven of the eight pleas in law relied on by Hamas to challenge its listing, the General Court annulled the acts at issue because of the Council’s failure to authenticate, by means of a signature, the statements of reasons relating to those acts, those statements of reasons having been set out in separate documents.

"The General Court erred in law in ruling that the statements of reasons relating to the retention of Hamas on the lists annexed to the acts at issue should have been signed by the President and the Secretary-General of the Council. In addition, those statements of reasons were adopted by the Council simultaneously with those acts, to which they were inseparably attached, and their authenticity has not been validly challenged," said the Court of Justice of the European Union.