On Thursday 13 September, the General Court of the EU upheld the sanctions imposed in 2014 onwards by the Council of the EU against the Russian energy companies Rosneft (T-715/14) and Gazprom (T-735 and 799/14) as well as the Russian banks Sberbank of Russia (T-732/14), VTB Bank (T-734/14), Vnesheconombank (T-737/14), PSC Prominvestbank (T-739/14) and Denizbank (a Turkish bank owned by Sberbank (T-798/14).
The aim of these measures is to increase the costs of the actions carried out by Russia against the sovereignty of Ukraine, following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
In its judgment, the General Court finds that the Council provided sufficient justification for the acts that have been challenged.
It considers that the sanctions in question are also compatible with the EU/Russia partnership agreement, in reference to an earlier judgment (case C-72/15) whereby these sanctions are necessary to preserve the security of the EU and at international level. The decision to target businesses that depend on technology or expertise that is mainly available in the EU corresponds to the aim of guaranteeing the effectiveness of the sanctions and preventing them from being circumnavigated by means of imports from third countries, the Court said.
The General Court also considers that the interference of the sanctions in question in the freedom of enterprise and right of ownership of the sanctioned businesses cannot be considered disproportionate. It explains that the purpose of the sanctions justifies the negative consequences, even considerable ones, for certain economic operators that have no responsibility in the annexation of Crimea.
In a separate judgment on Thursday, the General Court also upheld the continuation of the freezing of the assets of the Russian company Almaz-Antey and approved this measure for the period 2015-2016 (case T-515/15). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)