The European Parliament adopted a
recommendation to the Council containing a proposal for a European
Parliament recommendation to the Council on a consistent policy
towards regimes against which the EU applies restrictive measures,
when their leaders exercise their personal and commercial interests
within EU borders.
Within the framework of the CFSP, sanctions or
restrictive measures are regarded as coercive measures short of
force, such as arms embargoes, trade sanctions, financial and
economic sanctions, freezing of assets, flight bans, restrictions
on admission, diplomatic sanctions, boycotts of sports and cultural
events and suspension of cooperation with a third
country.
Members consider that the application of
sanctions and restrictive measures is effective only if this forms
part of a cohesive overarching EU and Member State strategy on
human rights.
However, disagreement among Member States often
leads to inconsistent application of restrictive measures which
damages the EU’s credibility and has a detrimental impact on
the efficiency of those measures. Sanctioned leaders will be affected if they are
personally subject to pressure in the form of restrictions on their
ability to move money, invest and access their financial assets,
restrictions on prospects for travel, and restrictions on access to
particular goods and services or diplomatic
representation.
In this context, it is proposed that the European
Parliament address the following recommendations to the
Council:
(1) Develop clear
criteria:
- to develop clear criteria for when restrictive
measures are to be applied, the objectives for such measures, the
form of sanctions to be applied, guidelines for their periodic
evaluation and the review procedure to be followed in consultation
with the European Parliament;
- to establish the criteria in a way that enhances
the consistency and credibility of EU sanctions, but leaves
sufficient flexibility at the operational level, enabling the Union
to leverage the instrument as an effective tool in its external
action;
- to systematically support the work of the
International Criminal Court by ensuring that the procedures
and the judgments of the court are duly regarded in EU sanctions
policy;
- to urge the EU Member States to apply the principle
of universal jurisdiction in tackling impunity and crimes
against humanity, in order to improve the international criminal
justice system.
(2) Build an efficient sanctions
policy:
- to commit to maximizing collaboration and synergy
amongst the 27 EU Member States, urging them to speak with a
unified and consistent voice on the matter of condemning
authoritarian regimes through a single integrated EU
approach;
- to implement existing sanctions regimes with rigour
and consistency, striving to avoid the application of double
standards and extending their scope to include cases of violation
of fundamental freedoms;
- to deploy sanctions or restrictive measures which are
targeted at and proportionate to the objective pursued, aimed at
influencing only the accountable elites of repressive or criminal
regimes;
- to ensure that foreign aid for development or
other purposes does not end up being an incentive for the
enrichment of authoritarian leaders and their inner
circles;
- to ensure that the sanctions policy is coupled with
support for civil society in the country concerned;
- to ensure that there are no double standards
when deciding on restrictive measures or sanctions and that these
are applied regardless of political, economic and security
interests;
- to ensure that the Member States, as well as EU
Heads of Mission and Delegation are closely involved in the
process of designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating
restrictive measures and their consequences on the ground by
providing input for impact assessment, which makes EU presence on
the ground essential;
- to commit the Commission and Member States to
coordinate the implementation of arms embargoes which are a
Member State competence;
- to consider, where appropriate, activating
‘essential elements’ clauses in bilateral trade
that permit the EU to impose sanctions for breach of human rights
and democratic principles and engage in a coherent European foreign
policy in order to support measures against authoritarian
regimes;
(3) Commit to a coherent
policy within EU borders:
- to commit EU Member States to declare
when persons on the sanction list have physical and financial
assets held within their borders, and the approximate value and
location of the assets; to call on EU Member States to collaborate
in exchanging relevant information, for example through the
existing Asset Recovery Offices and the Camden Asset Recovery
Inter-Agency Network (CARIN): to enhance cooperation between EU
Member States in the identification and confiscation of those
assets;
Member States are called upon
to:
I.
to ensure the
rigorous application of targeted financial sanctions or restrictive
measures such as extending Directive 2005/60/EC on the prevention
of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money
laundering and terrorist financing to apply in a mandatory way
to all attempts to open accounts or deposit money by sanctioned
dictators and natural and legal person or entities associated with
them, this money being the proceeds of crime, theft and
embezzlement: and exploring options for other preventive mechanisms
to curb the inflow of misappropriated state funds or assets into EU
financial institutions;
II.
to prohibit schools
and universities, think tanks and other academic institutions from
accepting funding, grants, or donations from sanctioned leaders and
their natural and legal associates and to establish transparency in
their private financing;
III.
to commit the EU
and its Member States to strict adherence to travel bans
prohibiting sanctioned persons.
It is also necessary to commit the EU
to strengthen legitimacy and build broad public and political
support for its policies, including restrictive measures and
sanctions, at the EU and international levels, especially in the
countries of the sanctioned regimes, and to associate the European
Parliament fully in the process. The Council is invited to
consult the European Parliament fully in
the sanctions review process and to seek input from the European
Parliament into the political guidelines and framing of wider EU
sanctions policy.