The European Parliament voted on Thursday 8 October 2026 in favour of a resolution calling for a unified European strategy to address the Muslim Brotherhood’s networks and influence, including an assessment of whether individuals and entities linked to the group could be added to the European Union’s list of terrorist organisations.
European vote on a unified strategy
The resolution was backed by 381 members, opposed by 167, while 15 abstained. It concerns the development of a common European approach to addressing the group’s network and influence within EU member states, after the issue shifted this year from national initiatives to discussions within European institutions.
The resolution is not limited to considering inclusion on the European list; it also calls for measures related to funding and stronger cooperation among member states to address activities by networks linked to the group. The vote places the issue of individuals and entities connected to the Muslim Brotherhood before EU institutions for assessment under the applicable European frameworks.
French move paved the way for European debate
The vote followed an initiative led by France at national level. On 22 January 2026, the French National Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the Muslim Brotherhood and its leaders to be added to the European Union’s list of terrorist organisations, directly moving the issue towards European institutions.
Earlier, the European Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly adopted a recommendation in January calling for the group to be added to the European list. The committee based its call on what it described as the cross-border nature of the group’s networks, and called for a coordinated European response rather than limiting the response to separate measures taken by individual states.
US classification and moves in Florida
The French and European moves coincided with a US decision issued in January 2026 to classify Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity”, commonly abbreviated as “SDGT”. Cairo welcomed the US decision, saying it was consistent with its official position on the group. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the US classification reflected the position Egypt had adopted since the events of 30 June 2013.
It said Cairo classifies the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation and accuses it of practising violence, incitement and exploiting religion to achieve political goals. In the context of the US moves, the European Observatory for Countering Extremism said on Wednesday that Florida took a decision against the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, “CAIR”, on 29 September.
The observatory described the measure as a US escalation against the group and one of its branches in the state. In a press statement, it said the Florida government had classified the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, along with another organisation, as domestic terrorist organisations.
It added that the state had included on the same list more than 90 foreign terrorist organisations that the US federal government had previously classified as such. According to the observatory’s statement, Florida’s decision bars the council and the other listed organisations from receiving financial support from local governments or the state government.
Legal implications and continued listings
The decision also provides for the cancellation of scholarships allocated to schools affiliated with the covered entities and financially benefiting from them. In Egypt, legal proceedings against the group began in 2013, with decisions issued to ban its activities, close its offices and halt its operations.
Procedures to list the group and entities linked to it as terrorist entities continued subsequently, based on successive judicial rulings and decisions, while official Egyptian records showed that listing decisions continued in the following years. In January 2026, the issue moved to a new level through the US classification concerning Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, in parallel with the French National Assembly’s adoption of a political step aimed at advancing the listing of the group and its leaders in Europe.
In February 2026, the Council of the European Union broadened the criteria used for its terrorist list to include leaders of listed groups, as well as individuals and entities linked to terrorist acts through funding, training or recruitment. However, the Council left the list itself unchanged during that review.
