ANTI-TERRORISM : ECJ: FREEZE OF FUNDS DOES NOT INCLUDE BENEFITS PAID TO SPOUSES.

• Position: European Court of Justice

It is impossible to extend the freeze of funds of presumed terrorists in the EU to social security and assistance benefits paid by member states to their spouses on the grounds that this aid may also be used for the benefit of those included in the EU black list'. This is essentially what the EU Court of Justice's advocate-general said in his conclusions, published on 14 January, on Case C-340/08 in the United Kingdom.

Since 2002, the EU has frozen the European assets of persons and entities associated with Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban, upon the recommendation of the United Nations following the attacks of 11 September...