European Council Floats Sanctions Violations Enforcement Measure to EU Parliament
The European Council on June 30 requested the consent of the European Parliament to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of "EU Crimes" laid out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the council said. The move is intended to crack down on the circumvention on the EU's many sanctions regimes, most notably Russia restrictions made following the invasion of Ukraine. With EU member states having different definitions of what constitutes a violation of the EU's sanctions regimes, the council said that greater effort is needed to harmonize sanctions enforcement.
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"A unanimous decision to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of ‘EU crimes’ will allow, as a second step, the adoption of a directive containing minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of EU restrictive measures," the council said. "This will ensure a similar degree of sanctions enforcement throughout the EU and will dissuade attempts to circumvent or violate EU measures." If the European Parliament gives its consent, the council can formally adopt the measures.