The agenda of the EU Council meeting also includes discussions on relations with the USA, Turkey, Venezuela, Georgia and the development of EU strategic autonomy
At a meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU foreign ministers will approve a mechanism of sanctions for human rights violations in third countries, which, according to the EU, will not be a copy of the American Magnitsky Act. In addition, the agenda of this year’s last EU Council meeting at the level of EU foreign ministers includes a discussion of relations with the USA, Turkey, Venezuela and Georgia, as well as the development of EU strategic autonomy.
This meeting will be a preparation for the foreign policy debate at the EU Summit of Heads of State and Government on 10-11 December.
Sanctions for human rights violations
A European source previously reported that the new mechanism will be called the EU Framework Sanctions Mechanism on Human Rights Violations. The source explained that these sanctions will not differ in substance from the restrictive measures currently in place by the community in the field of human rights violations against individual states, such as Belarus, Myanmar and Iran. The new regime provides for the creation of a blacklist, where all individuals will be banned from entering the EU and their financial assets in the EU will be frozen.
“The only difference of the new regime is that it will enable us to punish human rights violators around the world, whether or not their countries are subject to EU sanctions”, – said the European official.
The EU ambassadors agreed on this sanctions regime on 2 December. Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen reported on the development of a European analogue of the Magnitsky Act in the EU in September. Speaking to the European Parliament on 15 September, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Joseph Borrel proposed linking these sanctions to the name of Alexei Navalny, but this idea did not receive support.
The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law and Accountability Act was adopted by the US Congress and signed by then US President Barack Obama in December 2012. The Act provides for unilateral sanctions against Russian officials who, from a U.S. perspective, are responsible for human rights violations in their home countries. In December 2016, the Senate passed a bill that would extend the Magnitsky Act to other countries, not just Russia.
Subsequently, analogues of the Magnitsky Act were adopted in Canada, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the relevant bills are being considered in several other countries.