Abstract
In response to recent Russian actions threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine, the EU imposed targeted sanctions. Initially, these sanctions were aimed at people and companies that could be deemed responsible for Russia’s actions, but they were soon expanded to cover a broader group of sanctionees and to include restrictions on access to European capital markets and the export and import of certain types of goods. The sanctions raise several legal issues under European treaty law that would be open to review by the European Courts. Perhaps the most controversial of these surround the EU’s citation of the ‘destabilization’ of Eastern Ukraine as the legal justification for the imposition of the sanctions. Given the European Courts’ increasing activity in reviewing restrictive measures, it would not be surprising if those affected contested these new sanctions.
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Notes
- 1.
Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 810/2014 of 25 July 2014 Implementing Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine; Council Decision (EU) 2014/499/CFSP of 25 July 2014 Amending Decision 2014/145/CFSP; Council Regulation (EU) 811/2011 of 25 July 2014 Amending Regulation (EU) No 269/2014.
- 2.
Statement by the President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy and the President of the European Commission in the name of the European Union on the agreed additional restrictive measures against Russia, EUCO 158/14, Brussels (29 July 2014), available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/144158.pdf (accessed 17 August 2014); EU Restrictive Measures in View of the Situation in Eastern Ukraine and the Illegal Annexation of Crimea, Background Note, Brussels (29 July 2014) available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/144159.pdf (accessed 17 August 2014). Current sanctions listings can be found under www.europeansanctions.com.
- 3.
Council Conclusions on Ukraine, Press Release, Brussels (22 July 2014) available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/144090.pdf (accessed 17 August 2014); European Council Conclusions on External Relations (Ukraine and Gaza), Brussels (16 July 2014) available at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/143990.pdf (accessed 17 August 2014).
- 4.
Council Decision (EU) 2014/499/CFSP of 25 July 2014 Amending Decision 2014/145/CFSP, Articles 1–2; Council Regulation (EU) 811/2011 of 25 July 2014 Amending Regulation (EU) No 269/2014, Article 1.
- 5.
See for further details Council Decision 2014/512/CFSP (O.J. (L229)) (31 July 2014); Council Regulation (EU) 833/2014 (O.J. (L229)) (31 July 2014); see also European Sanctions Law and Practice, www.europeansanctions.com.
- 6.
TEU, Article 29 (O.J. (C115/13)) (9 May 2008); Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Article 215 (O.J. (C326)) (26 October 2012).
- 7.
After the incident, Canada was the first country to react on 24 July 2014 to “increase economic and political pressure on the Putin regime,” according to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Michael O’Kane, European Sanctions Law and Practice, Canada Announces Sanctions against Russia and Ukraine, http://europeansanctions.com/2014/07/25/canada-announces-sanctions-against-russia-and-ukraine/ (accessed 17 August 2014).
- 8.
Case C-548/09 P, Bank Melli Iran v. Council, 2011 ECHR I-11381, para 36. The Court makes also reference, by analogy, to its decision in CFI/GC, Case T-228/02, Organisation des Modjahedines du Peuple d’Iran v. Council of the European Union, 2006 ECR II-4665, para 159.
- 9.
Case C-548/09 P, Bank Melli Iran v. Council, 2011 ECHR I-11381, para 37; Organisation des Modjahedines du Peuple d’Iran v. Council of the European Union, 2006 ECR II-4665, para 154.
- 10.
Case T-306/01, Yusuf and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities, 2005 E.C.R. II-3533; Case T-315/01, Kadi v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities, 2005 E.C.R. II‐3649; Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P, Yassin Abdullah Kadi and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities, Judgment of the European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber), 2008 E.C.R. I-6351; Case T-85/09, Kadi v. Commission, 2010 E.C.R. II-5177; Joined Cases C-584/10 P, C-593/10 P and C-595/10 P, Kadi, Judgment of the European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber), 18 July 2013.
- 11.
These rights include those protected by the ECHR (ECHR, 4 November 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 222); Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (O.J. (C364/01) (18 December 2000)); TEU, Article 6(1) (O.J. (C115/13) (9 May 2008)).
- 12.
General Court of the European Union, Press Release 99/13 (6 September 2013), available at europa.eu/rapid/press-release_CJE-13-99_en.htm (accessed 19 August 2014); see also Case C-280/12 P, Council v. Fulmen & Fereydoun Mahmoudian (2013) available at curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-280/12 (accessed 19 August 2014); Case T-494/10, Bank Saderat v. Council (2013) available at http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=%2522charter%2Bof%2Bfundamental%2Brights%2522&docid=133481&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=495482#ctx1 (accessed 19 August 2014); Case T-496/10, Bank Mellat v. Council (2013), available at http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=133103&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=82836(accessed 19 August 2014).
- 13.
Military and Paramilitary Activities (Nicaragua v. United States), Judgment, 1986 I.C.J. 14, 106–110.
- 14.
See, e.g., Application of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, 2007 I.C.J. 43, 113 (finding Serbia responsible for violating its obligation to prevent genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia in July 1995).
- 15.
TEU, Article 24(1) (O.J. (C115/13)) (9 May 2008); Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Article 275 (O.J. (C326)) (26 October 2012).
- 16.
In Joined Cases C-584/10 P, C-593/10 P and C-595/10 P (Kadi), the ECJ considered that it is the responsibility of the competent European Union authority (having produced the “terrorist list”) to establish, in the event of challenge, that reasons relied on against the person concerned are well founded; it is not the responsibility of that person to adduce evidence to the negative. Joined Cases C-584/10 P, C-593/10 P and C-595/10 P, Kadi, Judgment of the European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber), para 120, 18 July 2013.
- 17.
Idem.
- 18.
EU Council Decision 2014/145/CFSP of 17 March 2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine, Articles 3(2)–3(3).
- 19.
Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine, recital 6.
- 20.
EU Council Decision 2014/145/CFSP of 17 March 2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine, Article 6; Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine, Article 14(4).
- 21.
Notice for the attention of the persons and entities subject to the restrictive measures provided for in Council Decision 2014/145/CFSP, as amended by Council Decision 2014/499/CFSP; Council Regulation (EU) 269/2014 as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No 810/2014 Concerning Restrictive Measures in Respect of Actions Undermining or Threatening the Territorial Integrity, Sovereignty and Independence of Ukraine. See Notices from EU Institutions, Bodies, Offices, and Agencies (O.J. (C244/4)) (26 July 2014).
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Simonen, K. (2015). Final Comment: Legal Review of New EU Sanctions Against Russia in Light of Recent Jurisprudence of the European Courts. In: Marossi, A., Bassett, M. (eds) Economic Sanctions under International Law. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-051-0_13
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