On 17 May 2019, the Council adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2019/796 (the “Regulation”), which establishes a framework for the EU to impose sanctions in relation to cyber-attacks which constitute an external threat to the EU or its Member States. Cyber-attacks against third states or international organisations also fall within the ambit of the framework where necessary to achieve the objectives of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. The UK and the Netherlands played a…
The UK Parliament has approved the draft Protection against the Effects of the Extraterritorial Application of Third Country Legislation (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 which will transpose the EU blocking statute into UK domestic law in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The EU Blocking Regulation aims to offset the unlawful effects of third country extra-territorial sanctions on EU operators. The new UK Regulations are particularly relevant following the EU’s response to the re-imposed US…
The High Representative of the European Union and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom released a joint statement today (see here for the full statement) following Iran’s announcement yesterday that it would withdraw from certain commitments as agreed as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement (see our post here on this). The statement urged Iran to continue to implement its commitments under the nuclear agreement, stating that Iran’s compliance would be…
President Hassan Rouhani has announced that Iran will withdraw from certain commitments agreed in the 2015 nuclear agreement; this announcement comes a year after the agreement was abandoned by the US, leading to the re-imposition of US sanctions against Iran. In today’s announcement, Hassan Rouhani declared that Iran will stop exporting its surplus enriched uranium. This decision is contrary to the agreement, under which Iran is required to sell its surplus enriched uranium abroad to…