As announced in our last Quarterly Sanctions Update, on April 12, 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted a directive criminalizing sanctions violation at the European Union (EU) level. In this post, we provide a summary of the key provisions of this directive, to be followed by a second post focusing on its potential implementation in EU Member States.
The EU and the UK continue in their efforts of tightening sanctions against Russia, particularly in the context of the second anniversary of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sudden death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In this Quarterly Sanctions Update, McDermott Sanctions and Export Controls team summarizes the most recent and significant legislative amendments, as well as changes to the existing guidance, introduced between December 2023 and April 2024.
Notably, EU companies with presence in Russia will no longer be able to rely on the “partner countries subsidiary” exemption after 20 June 2024 and will be required to obtain individual licences to provide business services to their Russian entities. The processing time, information and documents relating to licence applications may vary depending on the EU Member State; for example the French competent authority requires operators to provide company specific information as well as description of services as of April 20, 2024 via Téléservice platform. Licences will also be required under a new prohibition relating to the provision of software for the management of enterprises, industrial design, or manufacture. Finally, EU exporters will need to ensure that they insert “no Russia clauses” in their agreements, prohibiting [...]
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Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of May 20, 2021 is known as the “Dual-Use Regulation” and its purpose is to establish an EU regime governing the export, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. According to Article 9 of this regulation, EU Member States must, for reasons of public security (e.g. prevention of terrorism, protection of human rights), prohibit the export of dual-use items not listed in Annex I of the Dual-Use Regulation, or at the very least make any such export subject to an authorization requirement.
Given this legal requirement, Member States might decide to adopt a national control list of any such items and so on February 2, 2024the French Ministry of Economy published an order (arrêté) establishing a national list of dual-use items and technologies subject to prior authorization. The Ministry focuses on exports to third countries of goods and technologies related to quantum computing and its enabling technologies, as well as equipment for the design, development, production, testing and inspection of advanced electronic components.
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