The Sri Lankan government has welcomed the decision by the European Union to appeal October's judgement by the General Court of the European Union, to annul the European Council's measures taken against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which was designated as a terrorist organisation in 2006.

In a statement, the country's Ministry of External Affairs said that activities by the LTTE continued in Europe and added the government remained committed to  providing further assistance to the EU in regards to this matter.

"The action taken by the Council of the European Union demonstrates commitment for the fight against terrorism at a time when this threat is increasingly posing a significant challenge to global peace and stability, necessitating a collective and vigorous international effort to counter," the MEA statement said.

"Sri Lanka has worked closely with the EU and its Member States in investigations against activities on EU territory by networks of the LTTE, which remains proscribed in the USA, Canada, India, the UK and Sri Lanka and impressed the urgent need for action to be taken to maintain the proscription. It is encouraging that the decision by the Council of the European Union to appeal, suspends the effects of the judgement until the completion of the appeal process, particularly given the continued activities of the LTTE networks in Europe,"

"It is also noted that in order to avoid possible annulments in the future, the EU institutions are continuing to study further remedial action that may be taken with regard to this legal ruling, which was clearly based on procedural grounds, as stated by the General Court itself, and did not imply any assessment by the Court of the substantive issues of the designation of the LTTE as a terrorist organization or of the freezing of LTTE funds," it further said.

EU Council to appeal annulment of restrictions against LTTE (02 December 2014)

EU court annuls LTTE anti-terror measures on procedural grounds (16 October 2014 )