The EU extended for another year its sanctions regime pertaining to individuals and entities who commit serious human rights violations worldwide, the European Council announced Dec. 5. The restrictions, which cover 17 individuals and five entities and amount to a travel ban and asset freeze, will be in effect until Dec. 8, 2023.
The European Council announced that non-EU European nations aligned with five different sanctions decisions. Concerning the Nov. 14 move to amend the list of individuals and entities subject to sanctions on Iran, the countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway also imposed the decision, the council said.
Switzerland has frozen $7.99 billion in Russian assets out of an existing $49.1 billion marked by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, the Swiss Federal Council announced. In addition to the nearly $8 billion, Switzerland has also seized 15 properties. SECO said that after the imposition of the Russian sanctions, 123 individuals or entities reported 7,548 business relationships with sanctioned parties, carrying a value of over $49.1 billion. The Federal Council clarified, though, that this number can "not be equated" with the total amount of funds of Russian origin held in Switzerland because Swiss citizens "are exempt from the ban on deposits and the reporting requirement."
The European Council on Dec. 1 agreed to a "general approach" to a proposed piece of regulation that would set up the European Defence Industry Reinforcement through common Procurement Act (EDIRPA), the council announced. The approach means the council has a political agreement from which it can start negotiations with the European Parliament, the council said. The council confirmed the European Commission's proposal to commit over $524 million from the EU budget to "incentivise actions addressing the most urgent and critical defence product needs," though these actions must be carried out by at least three member states.
The European Commission proposed to EU member states the possibility of using assets frozen under the Russia sanctions regime to compensate Ukraine for damages incurred by the war with Russia, the commission announced Nov. 30.
The U.K. Department for Transport recently amended its transport sanctions to add guidance on Belarus ship sanctions and expand the guidance on Belarus aircraft sanctions. The agency also updated the guidance on Russia ship and aircraft sanctions.
The U.K. imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on shipments of electric bicycles from exporters Jinhua Otmar Technology and Jinhua Seno Technology, following a new exporter review, the Department for International Trade announced. Otmar and Seno were levied a 16.2% antidumping rate and a 17.2% countervailing duty rate on their exports of cycles, including those with pedal assistance or an auxiliary electric motor. The duties take effect Nov. 30 and expire either Jan. 19, 2024, or the date the secretary of state specifies in a notice.
The U.K. added 22 new entries to its Russia sanctions list, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation announced Nov. 30. All 22 are government and military officials, including officials responsible for promoting and enforcing the conscription of citizens to fight the war in Ukraine, OFSI said. The listings include Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Valentinovich Manturov; 10 governors and regional heads, including the governors of Dagestan and Kalmykia; five military commissars of Moscow, the Kaliningrad and Rostov regions; Arkady Alexandrovich Gostev, director of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service; Ivan Prokopenko, head of the Tula Federal Penitentiary Service; Dmitry Bezrukikh, head of the Federal Punishment Service of the Rostov Region; and Ella Pamfilova, chairperson of the Central Election Commission.
The U.K. published a notice Nov. 29 advising industry about revised export license "undertakings" and a reminder about the expiration of "previous undertaking templates." The notice said that when using an open individual export license, exporters need to "obtain a completed OIEL consignee undertaking from each consignee." When using open general export licenses related to military goods, software and technology, exporters "need to obtain a completed OGEL consignee undertaking for each consignee, as per the terms and conditions of the license," the U.K. added. Applications for either a standard individual export license or a standard individual trade control license must "attach either an end user undertaking or stockist undertaking (EUU or SU) as one of the supporting documents," the notice said.
The European Council Nov. 28 added sanctions violations to its list of "EU crimes." The move comes amid the EU's bevy of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The council said "it is essential that these measures are fully implemented," with listing sanctions violations as an EU crime the first of two steps to ensure harmonized sanctions enforcement across the bloc, the council said.