To this writer's knowledge, this is the first time this information has come to light, at least in the media. Indeed, it is common knowledge that for instance the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah is not part of the EU's list. But nowhere is al-Qaida mentioned.

Following the Sept.11 attacks, the European Union formulated an official list of terrorist organizations. Twelve groups such as the Basque separatist movement ETA, "the external security arms of Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad", the real IRA, and the Orange Volunteers were placed on this list, which obliges member states to seize their assets. But no mention of al-Qaida -- and this three months after the attacks in New York and Washington DC -- still appeared.

The most recent EU list of November 2005 includes now 47 groups (they removed Hezbollah altogether) but still no al-Qaida.

As a comparison, al-Qaida is of course included on the U.S. State Department list as well as the U.K. and Australian lists.

So, how come the European Union does not consider al-Qaida a terrorist entity?

Even though the EU has a different definition of terrorism than the U.S., it is hard to imagine al-Qaida does not meet EU requirements to make the terrorist list. Europeans have been traditionally more lenient towards what some may regard as "freedom fighting" or as may be the case with Hezbollah, a "mostly social" organization. But al-Qaida cannot be considered either a freedom fighting group, except if one assumes that they are liberating the ex Caliphate, or a social group.

Still the EU does not list them as a terrorist outfit.

The reason behind this being that Osama Bin Laden's organization is much more a franchise than an organized entity. Al-Qaida is a loose collection of different terror networks and therefore cannot be construed as one group per se. This argument does not hold water because al-Qaida always had a centralized command, a clear hierarchy.

Assuming for a moment that the Europeans are correct, it does alter the facts that al-Qaida does not appear on that list.

Interestingly, this issue has not really been on the table: for instance the latest available -2003- State Department report on Patterns of Global Terrorism does not mention the EU's omission. While Hamas and Hezbollah's potential inclusion to the EU list got a lot of coverage and rightly so, al-Qaida got none whatsoever.

The United States lobbied hard with its European allies to get Hamas on that list, overcoming France's refusal. No doubt some more lobbying is needed.

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Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com).