EU's Kallas says bloc looking for ways to support ICC

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday that the international legal order was under "assault" and the bloc was looking at options for supporting the International Criminal Court.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on six judges and three prosecutors at the ICC earlier this year, including its chief prosecutor who stepped aside temporarily in May amid a United Nations investigation into alleged sexual misconduct. Washington is also considering sanctions against the entire court.

Speaking at the College of Europe, a university based in Bruges, Kallas said "a broad assault is going on against the international legal order, human rights, internationally agreed norms, and the institutions we have established to enforce them."

She said the EU had a long and robust policy of supporting the ICC, but that the bloc had "its flaws too."

All EU countries are members of the ICC, but Hungary is in the process of leaving.

"One member state has announced its intention to withdraw from the ICC, but all member states are legally bound by decisions that are adopted by the Council, including the decision in support of the ICC and including in the case of a withdrawal," Kallas said, meaning that Hungary would still be bound by the Council's decision to support the ICC after its planned exit as a member of the court.

The foreign policy chief said the bloc was looking at ways to help the court.

"In Brussels, we are currently looking at all available options, including specific mitigating measures, for how we can make this support count for the ICC in its time of struggle,” she said.

(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Stephanie Van Den Berg, editing by Inti Landauro and Bernadette Baum)