Brussels has declared a violation of sanctions a crime
The European Commission has proposed that breach of EU sanctions be declared a European crime on 25 May. This means that such an action will be included in the list of crimes in each EU country and will be punished with similar severity if the proposal is approved, BTA reported.
A change in the rules for confiscation and recovery of confiscated property is also proposed. It is planned to confiscate the property of those citizens and companies that have violated the sanctions.
The Commission notes that the application of sanctions is even more important because of Russia’s war against Ukraine. It is added that in most EU countries, non-compliance with sanctions is prosecuted by law, and that such violations pose threats to security and international peace.
The EC proposes that participation in activities aimed at directly or indirectly circumventing sanctions be defined as a violation. According to the commission, it is necessary to speed up the work on imposing urgent seizure of property of violators, as well as those affected by EU sanctions. The Commission proposes that a structure be set up in each EU country to manage seized or confiscated property so that its value is not lost, sold and the cost of storing it limited.
The EU is reported to have approved more than 40 lists of sanctions, which include seizure of property, a ban on crossing borders, a ban on imports and exports of goods, and banking. EU countries have so far announced that they have seized assets worth nearly 10 billion euros and prevented actions worth 196 billion euros.
The Commission notes that the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus have increased the need to search for oligarchs’ property. The EC insists that uniform measures to enforce sanctions will help the EU speak with one voice. In some European countries, violating sanctions only leads to administrative penalties.
Greed
Europeans have shown themselves to be “greedy” rather than “naive”, relying heavily on energy supplies from Russia. This was stated today in an interview with several European media by EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager in an interview with the French economic newspaper Les Eco.
“We were not naive, but greedy. Our industry is largely built around Russian energy, mostly due to the fact that it is not expensive,” said Vestager, who is also vice president of the European Commission.
Vestager added that the behavior of Europeans is the same with China for many products or with Taiwan for chips, as they are looking for lower production prices.
Photo: The yacht of the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov has been seized in Hamburg and according to the discussed new rules it can be confiscated one day / https://sale.ruyachts.com
