The European Union's top court has recommended the rejection of an appeal by the Council of EU Member States against a lower EU court’s decision in 2014 to remove Hamas, the Palestinian islamist group that controls Gaza and Sri Lankan rebel group Tamil Tigers from the EU list of banned terrorist organizations due to a lack of evidence.

An advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), whose advice is usually followed by judges, made the recommendation.

In 2014, a lower court, the General Court, ruled that EU leaders relied too heavily on media reports rather than their own investigations when they imposed asset freezes and travel bans dating back 15 years on members of Hamas and the LTTE.

The court did not address whether the groups' actions merited inclusion on the list of terrorist organisations but ruled the procedures putting them on the list were flawed.

The EU Council appealed the ruling, citing the lower court's failure to accept its argument that the groups' presence on the US terrorism list justified sanctions.

Hamas’ charter says its members are pledged to destroying Israel through jihad.

The EU’s terrorism list was approved after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. It allowed the bloc to freeze groups’ financial assets and stepped up the cooperation between police and justice officials.

As of now, the list consists of 23 groups, including the Kurdish PKK, the military wing of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian groups such as Islamic Jihad. Hamas, an active terrorist group, was added to the list in late 2001.

Apart from the EU, the US, Canada and Japan consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

For the moment, nothing has changed and Hamas and the Sri Lankan group remain listed.

The European Court of Justice is expected to deliver a final ruling in the next months.

Israel responded to the court recommendation on Hamas by saying that it is still considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the US.

"We are waiting for the full opinion to be published," said Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon.

"This is only a (legal) opinion, which is not binding on the court and is part of the European judicial process.

He added that "We are convinced that the European Union will do all that is required in order to keep Hamas, an active terrorist group, on the European terror list."