Judgment_paragraph 40 · Council of the European Union v Hamas (C-79/15 P)

40Thus, although Article 1(6) of Common Position 2001/931 requires the Council to carry out at least once every six months a ‘review’ to ensure that there continue to be grounds for ‘keeping’ on that list a person or entity already listed on the basis of a national decision taken by a competent authority, it does not require any new material on which the Council may rely in order to justify the retention of the person or entity concerned on the list at issue to have been the subject of a national decision taken by a competent authority after the decision on which the initial listing was based. By imposing such a requirement, the General Court transposed the condition concerning the existence of such a decision, which is laid down in Article 1(4) of Common Position 2001/931 solely in relation to the initial entry of a person or entity on that list, to the reviews which the Council is required to carry out under Article 1(6) of that common position. In so doing, the General Court failed to have regard to the distinction between the original decision placing a person or entity on the list at issue and the subsequent decision maintaining the person or entity concerned on that list.