EU lawyers believe that the restrictions imposed after the start of the special operation of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine are not always strictly justified. This was reported by Bloomberg citing sources in Brussels.
About 30 Russian citizens sued the EU because of the sanctions imposed on them. About ten more people “directly requested” that they be removed from the restrictive lists.
The European Union’s legal service told EU ambassadors that some of these claims are justified: either the sanctioned people are not involved in the armed conflict in Ukraine, or the information is “out of date” or in some cases not important. justification for sanctions.
The names of Russians with whom the EU could lift sanctions were not specified.
Bloomberg writes that any loss in EU court in wrongful sanctions cases will incur “serious economic and reputational costs”.
Some of the European diplomats warned about this at the meeting on Wednesday and “urged not to rush”.
The sanctions were imposed by the European Union following the recognition of the independence of the DPR and LPR by the Russian Federation and the launch of a military operation in Ukraine. Hundreds of Russians, businessmen, officials, media executives and diplomats, were included in the new lists.
Billionaires Roman Abramovich, Gennady Timchenko, Petr Aven, Mikhail Fridman, Alexei Mordashov, Andrey Melnichenko and their spouses Alexandra challenged the restrictions in court. Since 24 February, a total of 41 EU sanctions cases have been filed, including legal entities.
List expansion
Bloomberg writes that the European Union also plans to impose restrictions on about 50 more individuals and entities from Russia as part of its seventh round of sanctions.
Earlier, Euractiv wrote that the European Union will approve the seventh package of sanctions against Russia within a week, which will ban the import of Russian gold and add a large number of Russians to the sanctions list. According to the portal, the new package will also expand the list of dual-use goods banned for export to Russia to include additional lists of persons and legal entities associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s circle.
The sanctions war has been ongoing since March 2014, when EU countries and the United States imposed sanctions on a number of Russian individuals, banks and companies immediately after the referendum on reunification with Russia in Crimea. Subsequently, these sanctions were repeatedly expanded and expanded, spreading from individual companies to all sectors of the economy, especially the military-industrial, agricultural and financial sectors. The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and some other countries have imposed similar restrictions against Russia.