Paris: A Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing moved up the EU agenda on 8 October 2026, when the European Parliament voted by 381 to 167 for a resolution that asks member states to add individuals and organisations linked to the group to the EU terrorist list. The text, drafted by French EPP member Céline Imart, echoes a resolution that the French National Assembly passed on 22 January 2026.

Parliament voted in plenary in Strasbourg a day after a debate on the third anniversary of the 7 October attacks. One report counts 15 abstentions. The resolution says the Brotherhood pursues “strategies of influence” in Europe and calls it “a political project based on the primacy of religious norms over common law”, as The National reported.

The call for a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing asks member states to share information so that the Council can assess the group’s leaders and structures and decide whether they meet the terrorism threshold. The review should reach beyond formal organisations to front groups, financial networks, youth groups and ideological platforms. MEPs also want the Commission to give a full account of any EU funds that went to associates of the Brotherhood.

Beyond a Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing, the draft also proposes an EU strategy against Islamist entryism, with a European method for spotting warning signs such as financial opacity, institutional doublespeak and the reconstitution of banned structures. Imart said she was ready to build a majority from Renew Europe to the Patriots. She told colleagues that “Islam as a faith and political Islam as an ideology must not be conflated”.

Politics inside the chamber turned sharp over the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing. Renew Europe’s Nathalie Loiseau negotiated the text and welcomed an EU strategy that helps national authorities share information, but she warned of a “temptation” in the EPP to lump entryism together with Islamist terrorism. The Left, the Greens/EFA and the S&D refused to join negotiations and tabled amendments warning against racism, antisemitism and the stigmatisation of Muslims.

The debate also produced friction. Spanish MEP Juan Ignacio Zoido called a comparison between radical Islamism and Opus Dei “an insult”, after Podemos asked the Popular Party to treat Opus Dei the same way if it labelled the Brotherhood terrorist. The exchange showed how far the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing divides the political groups.

The legal hurdle is high. High Representative Kaja Kallas reminded MEPs that an organisation can only appear on the EU terrorist list if it has been involved in an “attempt, participation or facilitation” of an attack. Listing also requires a unanimous decision by all 27 member states in the Council. Commissioner Magnus Brunner said governments hold different views, because some call the group terrorist while others focus on how its network of contacts might undermine European democracy.

Outside Europe the picture is mixed. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt outlaw the Brotherhood, and the United States has designated certain branches, including those in Egypt and Jordan. The group is not on the EU list today, and Parliament has no power to change that on its own.

A resolution only presses the other institutions, so the next move belongs to the Council and the Commission. The Commission’s accounting of EU funds is the most concrete demand and could arrive first. A Muslim Brotherhood terrorist listing, by contrast, depends on evidence that satisfies every capital, and that makes the unanimity rule the decisive obstacle.