The European Commission proposes declaring the violation of EU sanctions a criminal offense and harmonizing the penalties, the Brussels body informed on Friday.
In its announcement, the EU commission justified the need to accept its proposal by saying that the ongoing war in Ukraine has shown that it is extremely important to fully implement the sanctions and ensure that "violations of the restrictive measures do not pay off."
The proposal sets out common EU rules to facilitate the investigation and prosecution of breaches of restrictive measures and the same level of punishment in all Member States. It eliminates the existing loopholes and increases the deterrent effect of violating EU sanctions, they wrote.
The European Commission among others
would punish the provision of funds or economic resources to persons, organizations or bodies included in the sanctions list. It would punish the failure to freeze the funds of the listed persons stored in the Union, as well as the admission of the sanctioned persons to the territory of a member state. It would prohibit doing business with any non-EU country that is subject to EU restrictive measures, as well as trade in any goods or services whose import, export, sale, purchase, transfer, transit or delivery is prohibited or restricted. It would be forbidden to carry out any prohibited or restricted financial activities and to provide services to those who are sanctioned.
The level of punishments would be subject to common standards. Depending on the crime, for the given person
the maximum sentence that can be imposed is at least five years' imprisonment.
Companies and legal entities could be fined at least 5 percent of their total turnover achieved in the business year preceding the decision.
The proposal will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of Member States in the framework of the regular legislative procedure.
MTI
Photo: European Parliament
