The European Union (EU) on Sunday vowed to remove the FARC rebel group from its terror list after the guerrillas’ signing of peace with the government Monday.
The EU’s special envoy to the successfully finished peace talks, Ireland’s Eamon Gilmore, told television network RCN that the European executive body has begun taking steps to remove the FARC from the EU terror list.
The FARC is set to sign peace with President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday and previously asked the EU and the US to be removed from their lists of foreign terrorists organizations.
FARC asks EU to be taken off international terrorist organization list
According to Gilmore, the EU will make a formal pronunciation on the FARC’s designation as a terrorist group after the group formally made peace with the government.
The EU added the FARC to its list of international terrorist organizations in 2002 after decades of war in which the guerrillas committed numerous terror attacks.
The rebels have also asked the United States to remove the group from its own terror list, but has yet to receive an answer.
The US government has actively been involved in the talks that over the weekend led to the FARC’s dissolution as an armed group.
Following the peace ceremony on Monday, the group will demobilize and disarm and in the coming years make the transition to becoming a legal political party.
The FARC has been violently opposing Colombia’s state since 1964.
