The Council of the European Union has started to take measures to include the violation of restrictive measures in the list of “EU crimes”. This is an important step in the preparation of EU sanctions in the enlarged framework.
The EU has resolutely responded to Russia’s unjust war against Ukraine. In addition, a number of restrictive measures were taken in the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Council unanimously decided to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of “EU crimes”.
The successful implementation of these sanctions requires joint effort and the decision is an important tool to ensure that attempts to violate these measures are stopped.
Including restrictive measure violations in the list of “EU crimes” is the first of two steps to ensure the uniform application of sanctions across the EU and to prevent attempts to circumvent or violate EU-imposed restrictions.
Following the adoption of this decision, the European Commission will submit a proposal for a directive containing minimum rules on the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for breaches of EU restrictive measures. This will be discussed later by the Council of the European Union and the European administration.
Pursuant to Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, Parliament and the Council may lay down minimum rules for the definition of criminal offenses and sanctions, particularly in areas of serious crime with a cross-border dimension.
Currently, the criminal areas listed in this article are terrorism, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children, drug trafficking, illegal arms trafficking, money laundering, corruption, forgery of means of payment, cybercrime, and organized crime.
On May 25, 2022, the European Commission presented a resolution on adding an article on “violation of restrictive measures” adopted by the EU to the list of named crimes.
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