The European Commission has published its first formal guidelines on the package of restrictive measures targeting sectorial cooperation and exchanges with Russia that were introduced by Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 in July 2014. The guidelines are set out in a Commission Notice of 16 December 2014 and are in a Q&A format, based on questions that have been raised with the Commission.

On 5 December, the EU published Regulation 1290/2014 updating Regulation 833/2014, which had already been amended by Regulation 960/2014 in September. The amendment process was begun by the European Commission asking stakeholders for their comments on and issues with the earlier Regulations. A number of industries, including the oil and gas, and financial services submitted detailed comments. This lead to a number of proposed revisions being made by both the European Commission and the European Council, some…

The EU has now published the names of the 13 individuals and 5 entities that it has designated for being involved in separatist activities against Ukraine’s territorial integrity. These are listed here.