The European Council has adopted sanctions against nine individuals who hold positions of responsibility in the State administration and in the chain of command of the security forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for planning, directing or committing serious human rights violations. This is in addition to the seven people on whom the EU imposed sanctions as of 12 December 2016 due to the obstruction of the electoral process and related human rights…

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has recently announced that it is consulting on its draft guidance on the process for imposing monetary penalties for breaches of financial sanctions. The guidance relates to the new civil powers in the Policing and Crime Bill (the “Bill”), The Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will change the legal framework for enforcing the financial sanctions regulations. In particular, it will create a monetary penalty regime, enabling…

Further to our blog post setting out the Council of the EU’s decision to extend restrictive measures against Syria until 1 June 2017, the relevant implementing legislation has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union (Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/840 of 27 May 2016 (the “Regulation“) and Council Decision (CFSP) 2016/850 of 27 May 2016 (the “Decision“)). The Regulation and Decision enter into force tomorrow (29 May 2016).

The Council of the EU (the “Council“) today extended restrictive measures against Syria until 1 June 2017 in line with their conclusions of December 2014 in which it was affirmed that the EU would continue to impose and enforce sanctions for as long as the regime’s repression continued.  The EU implementing legislation is likely to be published in tomorrow’s edition of the Official Journal of the European Union.