Violation of restrictive measures added to list of EU crimes

The Council of the European Union today unanimously adopted a decision to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of ‘EU crimes’ included in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

“The EU has responded with determination to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine. It has adopted an unprecedented number of sanctions to target Russia’s economy and thwart its ability to continue with this aggression. To succeed, their implementation requires a joint effort, and today’s decision is an essential tool to ensure any attempts to circumvent these measures will be stopped,” explained Pavel Blažek, Czech Minister of Justice.

Currently, member states have different definitions of what constitutes a violation of restrictive measures and what penalties should be applied in the event of violation. This could lead to different degrees of enforcement of sanctions, potentially allowing sanctioned persons to continue accessing their assets and supporting regimes targeted by EU measures.

The European Commission will present this proposal for a directive that will then need to be discussed and adopted by the European Council and the European Parliament.

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Press release