The European Parliament criminalized bypassing sanctions against russia
The good news continues. With 543 votes, the European Parliament adopted the long-awaited Directive on the harmonization of criminalization and punishment for circumventing EU sanctions. The document criminalizes evasion of sanctions, prescribes uniform wording of violations and punishment.
Previously, different countries of the Union had disparate legislation, and circumvention of sanctions was criminalized in only 16 countries. Analysts of the Institute of Legislative Ideas investigated this issue and for almost two years advocated the criminalization of circumvention of sanctions.
Reference to our study of the state of prosecution for violation of sanctions. Reference to a study of the Malofeev case in the USA, which demonstrates why this tool is effective.
What would be considered a violation of sanctions?
- inability to freeze assets of sanctioned entities;
- provision of funds or financial services to a sanctioned person or organization;
- trade or transportation of goods prohibited by sanctions;
- doing business with state enterprises of countries that are under sanctions;
- granting a sanctioned person permission to enter or transit;
- other ways to bypass.
What punishment?
- For individuals, the maximum penalty is imprisonment of up to five years, if we are talking about assets of more than 100 thousand euros;
- For legal entities - various restrictive measures, for example, cancellation of permits, fines, liquidation, etc.
When to expect action of the Directive?
The Directive is pending approval by the Council of the EU, after which Member States will have one year to implement it into national law.
However, in Ukraine, a bill to criminalize circumvention of sanctions has not yet been adopted. In order to criminalize circumvention, the competent authorities and the public are now actively developing the necessary legislative changes to properly resolve this issue and synchronize the future law with the new EU Directive.