Since its commencement in 2014 and the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, the conflict in Ukraine has triggered unparalleled reactions from States and international organisations alike. The most notable of these include sanctions (countermeasures). The EU, which has a longstanding history of adopting sanctions (the so-called restrictive measures) in response to violations of international law by third states (non-member states) under its Common Foreign and Security Policy, has adopted eleven sanctions packages against the Russian Federation. These have included asset freezes, import and export ban on certain goods, visa bans, flight bans, bans on maritime transport and various trade restrictions. While the adoption of such sanctions is well known to the international community since they were adopted in a similar form in the past concerning e.g. situations in Syria and Zimbabwe, the situation in Ukraine brought the scale of EU sanctions adopted against Russia to an unprecedented level. The extent to which state-owned and private funds and properties have been subject to freezing remains incomparable to other instances in which the EU has adopted sanctions. Moreover, the EU has made two unprecedented moves: 1) it recently adopted the anti-circumvention tool (the so-called secondary sanctions) attempting to tackle sanctions circumvention through the jurisdiction of third countries, and 2) it is currently adopting a legal framework that would enable confiscation of frozen Russian property, with the intention of using seized funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

 

These developments open various legal and practical questions for the implementation of such sanctions by EU Member States. The aim of the workshop is to facilitate discussions between academics and state practitioners on current practices and challenges regarding the national implementation of EU sanctions. It aims to facilitate the exchange of (best) practices and pinpoint the peculiarities of some Member States sanctions’ implementation, focusing in particular on the EU’s Central and Eastern Europe Member States.

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The workshop will be followed by a roundtable open to the general public. For details, please check the specific information on the roundtable, including the registration link and program.