On September 20, 2016, the European Council announced the adoption of new measures enabling the EU to apply sanctions autonomously to ISIL/Da’esh and Al-Qaida and persons and entities associated or supporting them. Before this, sanctions could only be applied to parties listed by the United Nations or by individual EU member states. The decision enables the EU to impose restrictive measures, such as travel bans and asset freezes, on those persons and entities considered to…
On 20 June 2016, the European Council (the “Council”) published conclusions on EU strategy with Myanmar/Burma which reaffirm the EU’s strong commitment to support the reform efforts of Myanmar’s government (the “Conclusions”). These follow the adoption of a Joint Communication to the European Parliament and Council on 1 June 2016, and the EU’s most recent renewal of its remaining sanctions against Myanmar/Burma on 21 April 2016. Council Conclusions on EU strategy with Myanmar/Burma In the…
Further to our blog post summarising UN Security Council (“UNSC“) Resolution 2278 (2016) on the prevention of illicit crude oil exports from Libya and regarding the UN and EU designation of the Indian vessel Distya Ameya for transporting crude oil illicitly exported from Libya, the EU yesterday de-listed the vessel (following the UN’s delisting of the same on 12 May 2016) after India’s Permanent Mission to the UN informed the UN that the vessel had returned to Libya and discharged its entire oil cargo, under the supervision of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) (Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2016/816).
On 31 March 2016, the UN Security Council (“UNSC“) adopted UNSC Resolution 2278 (2016) (the “Resolution“) which renews until 31 July 2017 the measures imposed by UNSC Resolution 2146 (2014) on the prevention of illicit crude oil exports from Libya. Against this backdrop, on 27 April 2016, the Libya Sanctions Committee (the “Committee“) approved the addition of the Indian vessel Distya Ameya to the UNSC asset freeze and travel ban list in relation to attempts to illicitly export crude oil from Libya. This designation was implemented by the EU on 5 May 2016 pursuant to Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/690.