On 10 October, the European Union marked the seventh World Day and the third European Day against the Death Penalty as EU ambassadors gathered at the Swedish Embassy on October 9 to call for all nations to abolish the death penalty. The event was held to mark the World Day Against the Death Penalty, observed on Saturday, October 10 2009.

Upholding its stance, the EU maintained that the abolition of the death penalty is "an integral part of respect for human rights and protection of human dignity", the report from the EU website said on October 9.

The EU reaffirms its absolute opposition and has subsequently praised countries that have decided to abolish the death penalty while  calling for others still implementing it to reconsider "because the state, with its particular responsibility as the ultimate guarantor of all persons' human rights, should not deprive anyone of his or her life", the report said

In light of the event, the American Civil Liberties Union has called for the Obama administration and all 35 US states administering the death penalty "to heed the call of the EU and put a halt to the death penalty in the US criminal justice system", world media has reported.

The ACLU has continuously addressed the flaws of capital punishment in the US. Since 1977, more than 1125 people in the US have been executed. Fifty two people have been executed since October of 2008, while according to the report, as of January 2009, about 3330 people across the country were awaiting execution.

"The European Union today has thrown down the gauntlet to all nations to end capital punishment once and for all. The US should heed domestic and international calls to bring an end to the death penalty. It is time to admit that the use of the death penalty in the US has been a failed experiment with a very high cost in human suffering and inestimable damage to the country's standing and image in the world as a beacon for human rights and democratic values," Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program has said to the ACLU website:

Meanwhile, European leaders have praised the decisions taken by Burundi and Togo in 2009 to abolish the death penalty completely, and the commutation of all death sentences in Kenya and Ghana, as well as the abolition of the death penalty in the state of New Mexico in the US.

Belarus is currently the only country in Europe which continues to apply the death penalty to abolish the penalty, a fact noted by the EU. The EC has also expressed concern of the high number of executions still performed in some countries including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,  the USA and Iraq.

Bulgaria abolished the death penalty on December 10 1998 with life imprisonment without parole currently the heaviest punishment available. In recent years, the death penalty was also abolished in Turkey, Germany, France and Russia.