The Council of the European Union announced Monday that it would attempt to again designate Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The Palestinian group was taken off the EU’s official blacklist following a December 17 decision by the General Court of the European Union.

High representative Federica Mogherini, the vice president of the council, emphasized that the original ruling to include Hamas in the list “was clearly based on procedural grounds and did not imply any assessment by the Court of the merits of designating the Hamas as a terrorist organization.”

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The original listing in 2001 was based on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet, the General Court said in its ruling last month.

“This ruling was clearly based on procedural grounds and did not imply any assessment by the court of the merits of designating the Hamas as a terrorist organization,” Mogherini said in a statement Monday.

The ministers have “now decided to challenge some of the findings of the court regarding the procedural grounds to list terrorist organizations,” she said.

In his response to the original judgment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “The burden of proof falls on the EU, and we expect it to permanently return Hamas to the list, so everyone will understand that it is an inseparable part of it — Hamas is a murderous terror organization that emphasizes in its charter that its goal is to destroy Israel.”

As a result of the appeal, the effects of the December decision are suspended until a final judgment is made. One of the implications is that Hamas’s European assets, which were before only frozen temporarily will now remain so pending the final judgement.

“The European Union’s insistence on keeping Hamas on the list of terrorist organizations is an immoral step, and reflects the EU’s total bias in favor of the Israeli occupation,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP on Monday.

Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.