The Council adopted a legal framework on 20 September 2016 which, for the first time, will allow the EU to apply sanctions autonomously against the self-styled Islamic State organisation (or Da’esh) and al-Qaeda and persons and entities associated or supporting them. Hitherto, sanctions could only be applied to persons and entities listed by the United Nations or by EU member states acting individually
The EU will be able to impose travel bans on individuals and freeze the assets of individuals and entities that are identified as being associated with Da’esh or al-Qaeda, the Council states in a press release. The individuals and entities targeted include those who have participated in the planning or perpetrating of terrorist attacks or have provided Da’esh or al-Qaeda with financing, oil or arms, or have received terrorist training from them. Persons or entities could also be listed for activities such as recruiting, inciting or publicly provoking acts and activities in support of these organisations, or being involved in serious abuses of human rights outside the EU, including abduction, rape, sexual violence, forced marriage and enslavement of persons.
The EU will also be able to impose restrictive measures on individuals travelling or seeking to travel both outside the EU and into the EU with the aim of supporting Da’esh or al-Qaeda or receiving training from them. Such measures will target particularly the so-called “foreign fighters”. The travel ban will prevent listed persons from entering any EU member state. In the case of a listed EU national, the travel ban will prevent the listed person from travelling to any EU member state other than the member state of which that person is a national.
Persons and entities will be listed through the usual procedure: a Council decision and a Council regulation adopted unanimously. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)