The European Parliament on Thursday awarded its 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought collectively to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its officials, a day after giving its journalism prize to an investigation into Italy’s migration centres in Albania.
Announcing the laureate in the hemicycle, Parliament President Roberta Metsola said: “The European Union is built on respect for multilateralism and international institutions. With the award of the Sakharov prize to the International Criminal Court and its officials, the European Parliament recognises the Court’s important work in upholding international law and justice.”
The ICC investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, it is the world’s first permanent international criminal court. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement national courts. Through international criminal justice, it aims to hold those responsible for such crimes accountable and to help prevent them from happening again.
The award highlights the Court’s work, including investigations, prosecutions, trials and the issuance or authorisation of arrest warrants.
In Parliament’s 2025 annual reports on the implementation of the common Foreign and Security Policy and on human rights and democracy in the world, MEPs expressed deep concern at the growing threats and the various waves of sanctions imposed on the ICC since 2025, notably by the United States. The sanctions also targeted its prosecutors, judges, staff and partners. MEPs considered them serious attacks on the international justice system.
MEPs have repeatedly called on the European Commission to activate the EU’s so-called “blocking statute” to protect ICC officials from extraterritorial attacks and allow the Court to continue its activities in complete independence. The statute protects European operators, regardless of size or sector, by nullifying within the EU the effect of any foreign judicial decision based on foreign laws. It also lets them seek compensation in court for damages caused by the extraterritorial application of foreign laws.
The reports also welcomed the continuation of EU financial support for the ICC at what they described as a particularly difficult time for international justice. All EU member states are parties to the Rome Statute and are therefore obliged to implement the ICC’s decisions. MEPs emphasised that the growing disregard for international law and the politicisation of debates about international justice institutions constituted, in their view, an existential threat to the rules-based international order.
The ICC’s president and several of its judges visited Parliament committees in 2025 and 2026 to explain the consequences of US sanctions on their professional duties and personal lives.
The Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in 1988. Parliament awards it annually to individuals or organisations for work in areas including the defence of human and fundamental rights, particularly freedom of expression, the safeguarding of minority rights, respect for international law, the development of democracy and the defence of the rule of law. This year’s ceremony will take place in December in Strasbourg, during Parliament’s plenary session.
Journalism prize for report on Italy-Albania deal
On Wednesday, Parliament awarded its Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize for journalism to an investigation highlighting human rights violations at the migrant centres Italy established in Albania. The report was published in January 2026 by the Dutch outlet De Correspondent.
Titled “Cuffed, caged, cast away: this is Europe’s ‘innovative solution’ for unwanted migrants”, it explored two centres, in Shëngjin and Gjadër, built to accommodate asylum seekers rescued at sea while Italian authorities reviewed their applications. The report questions the legality of the centres, which opened in 2024 and have become a model for European migration policy as several countries seek to set up return hubs for migrants outside the EU.
After repeated legal setbacks, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government repurposed the centres in March 2025 to detain irregular migrants already in Italy ahead of deportation to their countries of origin. The report documented violations of fundamental rights and European law in the treatment of migrants and their transfer to the centres, and warned about the new EU migration policy.
Five EU countries are seeking to establish similar return hubs in Africa by 2027, following adoption of a controversial EU law providing a legal framework for such arrangements, including the transfer of irregular migrants to countries with which they have no connection.
“The deal is a blueprint for how to erode human rights, undermine the European rule of law, and normalize far-right views on migration,” the report says.
Its authors, Maite Vermeulen and Giacomo Zandonini, estimate that around €259 million was spent on the facilities over their first two years of operation, during which 256 people were detained, equivalent to approximately €1 million per person.
“It is a big PR operation, more than a policy that would actually expedite returns [of migrants],” Vermeulen told Euronews. She said the Italian approach is neither cheaper nor more effective and does not deter irregular arrivals. She argued that other EU countries could not follow the Italian model without breaching human rights. “That is a story we tell ourselves to make [return hubs] acceptable or palatable,” she said.
The investigation also denounces a “smokescreen” put in place by Italian authorities to hide details of the deal. Journalists were denied access, freedom of information requests often went unanswered, staff at the centres signed strict non-disclosure agreements and contracts were not made public.
The prize jury is composed of journalists from all EU member states.
