On March 25, 2025, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved a draft bill to implement Directive (EU) 2024/1226 on the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures and amending Directive (EU) 2018/1673 (“Draft Bill” and “Directive”, respectively). The Directive established minimum Member State requirements concerning the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for the violation and circumvention of EU sanctions. For further detail on the Directive, see our blog post of May 9, 2024 here.
Key Takeaway
The Draft Bill is a significant shift in the way EU sanctions violations are categorized and punished in Spain, moving from a system in which there are no specific offenses covering all possible violations of EU sanctions to a system in which EU sanctions violations will be specifically provided for in the Spanish Criminal Code and subject to severe penalties and potential collateral measures. As a result, all Spanish companies should have in place robust measures to ensure compliance with EU sanctions, as the Draft Bill may open the door to a new era of criminal enforcement of EU sanctions measures in Spain.
Summary
Spanish law does not currently have specific provisions criminalizing violations of EU sanctions. Instead, violations of certain EU sanctions measures are covered by more generic criminal or civil offenses, such as smuggling or money laundering. This creates complexity in sanctions enforcement because offenses derive from different legal instruments, these generic offenses are not defined, and do not currently provide for liability for all possible violations of EU sanctions.
For example, violations of the prohibition to import or export certain goods to or from certain sanctioned countries are covered by the smuggling offense in Organic Law 12/1995, of 12 December, on the Repression of Smuggling, which classifies such violations as criminal offenses or civil offenses depending on the value of the underlying goods. On the other hand, Law 10/2010, of 28 April, on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing classifies non-compliance with asset freezes and economic resources measures related to designated persons as either a serious or very serious civil offense (although extreme cases can be considered criminal offenses under the Spanish Criminal Code). By way of another example, violations of EU sanctions prohibitions on the provision of certain services to certain countries or parties are not currently covered as an offense under Spanish law.
The Draft Bill plugs these gaps by proposing to amend the Spanish Criminal Code to create new criminal offenses for violation of EU sanctions following the list of criminal offenses provided for in the Directive. Both natural persons and legal entities will be subject to criminal liability for these new offenses, which meansthat companies will need to review and adapt their compliance programs to these relevant regulatory changes in order to rely on a potential liability exemption. Note that the Draft Bill does not amend the aforementioned generic offenses. This means that non-compliance with EU sanctions may potentially implicate violation of several criminal prohibitions. Following the general principle of “specificity” of the Spanish Criminal Code (i.e a special provision shall have preferential application rather than a general one), in most cases the more specific and the most serious offense will be charged.
The Draft Bill also introduces an aggravating factor for the crime of money laundering (i.e., the acquisition, possession, use, or transfer of proceeds with knowledge or reason to know that their origin is illicit) when the proceeds are derived from activities constituting an EU sanctions violation.
The penalties proposed in the Draft Bill for the new criminal offenses of EU sanctions violations vary depending on the specific conduct and other factors (such as the value of the underlying goods or their nature). Penalties include up to 6 years of imprisonment and fines and, in certain cases, other collateral measures such as the confiscation of funds or economic resources subject to EU sanctions. In the case of legal entities, Spain has opted for a maximum criminal penalty or 5% of the total worldwide turnover of the legal entity concerned.
Finally, the Draft Bill also proposes the establishment of a joint coordination commission, affiliated with the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Legislative Chambers (Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes) and composed of representatives of the various authorities responsible for the enforcement of EU sanctions. This commission will monitor the effective application of EU sanctions, which further suggests stronger sanctions enforcement in Spain going forward.
Member States have until May 20, 2025, to transpose the Directive into national law. The Draft Bill is under public consultation until April 9, 2025 and its final text will need to be approved by the Spanish legislative chambers, entering into force 20 days after its official publication as organic law.
The authors acknowledge the assistance of Arnau Gaspà in the preparation of this blog post.
