Ukraine: EU agrees to extend the scope of sanctions on Russia and Belarus
The European Commission welcomes today's agreement of Member States to adopt further targeted sanctions in view of the situation in Ukraine and in response to Belarus's involvement in the aggression. In particular, the new measures impose restrictive measures on 160 individuals and amend Regulation (EC) 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus and Regulation (EU) 833/2014 concerning Russia's actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine. These amendments create a closer alignment of EU sanctions regarding Russia and Belarus and will help to ensure even more effectively that Russian sanctions cannot be circumvented, including through Belarus.
Sanctions concerning Belarus
For Belarus, the measures introduce SWIFT prohibitions similar to those in the Russia regime, clarify that crypto assets fall under the scope of “transferable securities” and further expand the existing financial restrictions by mirroring the measures already in place regarding Russia sanctions.
In particular, the agreed measures will:
- Restrict the provision of SWIFT services to Belagroprombank, Bank Dabrabyt, and the Development Bank of the Republic of Belarus, as well as their Belarusian subsidiaries.
- Prohibit transactions with the Central Bank of Belarus related to the management of reserves or assets, and the provision of public financing for trade with and investment in Belarus.
- Prohibit the listing and provision of services in relation to shares of Belarus state-owned entities on EU trading venues as of 12 April 2022.
- Significantly limit the financial inflows from Belarus to the EU, by prohibiting the acceptance of deposits exceeding €100.000 from Belarusian nationals or residents, the holding of accounts of Belarusian clients by the EU central securities depositories, as well as the selling of euro-denominated securities to Belarusian clients.
- Prohibit the provision of euro denominated banknotes to Belarus.
Sanctions concerning Russia
- new restrictions on the export of maritime navigation and radio communication technology
- Russian Maritime Register of Shipping added to list of state-owned enterprises subject to financing limitations and introduces a prior information sharing provision for exports of maritime safety equipment.
- Exemption relating to the acceptance of deposits exceeding €100.000 in EU banks to Swiss and EEA nationals extended.
- Loans and credit can be provided by any means, including crypto assets, as well as further clarified the notion of “transferable securities”, so as to clearly include crypto-assets, and thus ensure the proper implementation of the restrictions in place.
Furthermore, the amendment introduces new restrictions.