Violation of sanctions/EU crimes

Key points

The EESC:

• encourages the EU institutions to expand the humanitarian carve out, in order to exempt and protect humanitarian agencies and personnel from criminal liability, while ensuring that appropriate mechanisms are provided for to prevent abuse for criminal or political purposes. The EESC also calls for provisions for the protection of whistle-blowers and journalists reporting on these violations;
• remarks the importance to ensure full democratic scrutiny on the directive proposal, given that no impact assessment had been carried out and the Council decision was adopted via urgent procedure in the European Parliament;
• demands that the private sector and civil society organisations are provided adequate information and proactive support in adjusting to the new legislation and in complying with the requirements of sanction regimes;
• calls for Member States to be equipped with adequate administrative capacities, sufficient funds, and trained personnel for detecting, prosecuting and punishing sanctions violations, and for the sharing of best practices among judicial and law enforcement authorities;
• remains concerned that common crimes as serious as gender-based violence and hate crimes remain outside the scope of Article 83(1) TFEU.