On 22 September, after a one-week delay and a few hours before midnight, the Member States agreed to renew the EU sanctions list targeting Russia. The agreement provides for the delisting of three natural persons, including Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, and one legal entity. It locks in the amended list for the next three years.
William Julié discussed the legal stakes of this last-minute agreement with Andrew Rettman for EUobserver.
He addressed the legal consequences that would have followed the expiry of the EU restrictive measures regime against Russia, had the Member States failed to agree on its renewal.
Listings adopted under Council Decision 2014/145/CFSP of 17 March 2014 had, until now, been renewed every six months, by unanimity. A single veto was, and remains, enough to bring the whole list, some 3,000 individuals and entities, to an end.
Had that happened, all restrictions would have lapsed on expiry. Once the EU acts cease to exist, the national measures implementing them, visa bans and asset freezes, lose their legal basis and can no longer be enforced. In theory, listed persons could have ordered transfers of their frozen funds immediately after midnight.
The Member States ultimately reached an agreement and renewed the listings for three years, an unprecedented period for EU sanctions regimes.
The Court of Justice of the European Union will have to rule on this choice. Listed persons will inevitably raise the issue in pending and future proceedings before the EU Courts.