'The International Criminal Court deserves the Sakharov Prize': CJEU President Koen Lenaerts

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Issued on: 30/10/2026 - 17:51Modified: 30/10/2026 - 17:54

We speak to the influential and long-serving president of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Koen Lenaerts. The court is the EU's supreme judicial authority, responsible for ensuring that European law is interpreted and applied across all 27 member states.

Lenaerts applauds the European Parliament's decision to award its annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to the International Criminal Court (ICC), because its work "is indeed important in the context where the world is more and more governed by autocratic leaders."

Read moreInternational Criminal Court wins EU's Sakharov human rights prize

We also touch on rule-of-law issues inside the EU, and on the legal aspects of the apparent hardening of migration policy across the bloc.

Programme prepared by Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero, Perrine Desplats and Florine Hausfater