On Monday 28 November, the EU Council adopted a decision to include the violation of EU sanctions in the list of EU infringements (Article 83 TFEU). This adoption paves the way for the presentation of a directive establishing minimum rules for defining the violation of sanctions and minimum penalties for responding to them (see EUROPE 12960/6).
The EU hopes to standardise criminal law in Member States concerning the violation of its restrictive measures. “Today’s decision is an essential tool to ensure any attempts to circumvent these measures will be stopped”.
The European Commission plans to publish the directive laying down minimum rules very soon. The text of the latter has already been prepared and presented as an annex to the proposal for an EU Council decision in May.
See the European Commission’s communication including the text of a possible directive: https://aeur.eu/f/4bv (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)