Samenvatting

This research aims to examine how the EU and its Member States can advance its support for the ICC’s complementarity principle. The principle of complementarity is one of the ICC’s core principles and its paramount importance is acknowledged by the EU. Subsequently, the ICC is a court of last resort and complementarity ensures that it is utilized for that purpose. It therefore justifies the importance of complementarity in regard to the EU’s support for the ICC. The main research question is: How can the EU improve its support for the ICC’s complementarity principle? To answer the main research question, five research objectives are formulated, that are addressed in the different chapters of the research respectively. The Literature Review is used to present a clear overview of the existing academic literature in line with the research question, it also defines key terms in light of various experts and scholars. Which points out that advancing the support for complementarity requires the participation of all concerned actors. Essential actors and tools within the international justice system ensure that the support for the ICC is adequately implemented and reinforced. The EU and its tools play a critical role in promoting support for the ICC and its complementarity principle.
The Findings chapter applies a combination of extensive desk research to present a rounded list of EU efforts and qualitative interviews to obtain insight into the topic from experts with varying backgrounds and perspectives on the EU and its policy on international criminal justice, complementarity and the EU and the ICC dynamics or relations. The most pertinent findings from the Literature Review and Findings chapter are analysed in the Analysis Chapter to provide an additional dimension to the largely descriptive research and leads towards a comprehensive answer to the main research question. It is concluded, that over the years, the EU and its Member States have been the firmest advocates of the Rome Statute and conjointly of the ICC and its complementarity principle. Nonetheless, the current research suggests several courses of action for advancing the EU’s support for the complementarity principle.
The first recommendation point is the national implementation of core crimes. Implementing core crimes in national legislations enables States to fulfil their fundamental responsibility to investigate and prosecute core crimes. As second recommendation point, this research identifies the pivotal importance of political will and national capacity in ensuring the adequate functioning of complementarity. The third recommendation point is an evaluation and update of the Complementarity Toolkit, which was published in 2013. The fourth recommendation point is the OTP’s completion strategy. The study identifies the importance of the OTP’s completion strategy and the lack of support from the international community. Lastly, the current research highlights the importance of the EUMS financial support to the ICC.