21 December 2022
On November 28, 2022, the Council of the European Union adopted a decision to add violation of restrictive measures to the list of “EU crimes” included in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU as part of a framework of restrictive measures against Russia for its part in the Ukraine crisis. This will harmonize different national measures in force in various member states, as those currently provide different definitions of what constitutes a violation of restrictive measures and what penalties should be applied in the event of violation—a situation that gives rise to potential risk of those measures being circumvented.
Indeed, under Article 83.1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the Parliament and the Council may establish minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offenses and sanctions in areas of particularly serious crime with a cross-border dimension. On that legal basis, in May 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a decision to expand the list of these areas of crime to include the violation of restrictive measures adopted by the EU.
Following adoption of this decision, the European Commission will present a proposal for a directive containing minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for violation of EU restrictive measures.
