The role of the EU in international sanctions policy
Improving the mechanism of economic sanctions is one of the most important priorities of the European Union’s foreign policy. Today, sanctions are a tool to achieve political goals through financial, trade and other restrictions. The importance of such an instrument for the EU is determined by at least three factors
First, the European Union has enormous economic, technological and financial strength. The euro has firmly taken the second place among reserve currencies and means of international settlements. Economic power can easily be converted into political opportunity. Secondly, the EU is still seriously limited in the use of military-political instruments. Brussels is forced to compensate for their lack by other means, among which sanctions are the most attractive. They allow for real damage to target countries, as well as to individual organizations or individuals without significant counter-damage to the EU itself. Third, these measures are the result of a common European foreign policy. The very fact of their use symbolizes the unity of the EU, even when it comes to purely signal restrictive measures.
European Union sanctions are presented as unilateral restrictive measures. In other words, they are introduced by Brussels bypassing the UN Security Council. Today it is the UN Security Council that is the only legitimate source of international restrictive measures. Independent actions of states and international organizations are unilateral measures. However, the European Union carefully complies with the UN Security Council resolutions, that is, it combines in its practice adherence to international sanctions, but at the same time reserves the opportunity to introduce its own.
EU restrictive measures are adopted by the EU Council on the basis of consensus. Usually, the Council creates a legal mechanism for the use of sanctions on a particular issue (for example, human rights, cyber security, the situation in individual countries, etc.). The mechanism consists of two components: a decision and a regulation of the EU Council.
As a rule, these documents contain annexes that indicate lists of individuals and legal entities subject to certain restrictions. The most common types of restrictions are blocking measures (freezing assets in the EU and a ban on transactions with unsanctioned persons in the EU jurisdiction), as well as visa restrictions. The practice of restrictions against certain sectors of the economy of the target country appears (such sanctions are in force against Russia). Decisions on them are drafted by the European External Action Service. The decisions of the EU Council are binding on the member states. That is, the implementation of EU sanctions is carried out at the level of national states that are members of the European Union.
What does the EU sanctions policy actually look like? How often does the EU introduce them in comparison to other players? Who are they against? Let’s look at the statistics of the sanctions episodes of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). In 2020, a total of 850 such episodes were recorded in the world. Here, both the introduction of new restrictions and the abolition of old ones or mitigation. There are also threats of the use of sanctions, draft decisions, resolutions, implementation of existing mechanisms.
The expected leader in the number of sanctioned episodes is the United States – it accounts for 449 events out of 850, that is, more than half (52%). There are 110 events associated with the European Union (12.9%). After the United States, the European Union ranks second. For comparison, Great Britain is the initiator of 62 events (7.2%), and the UN Security Council – 58 (6.8%). Russia accounts for 16 episodes (1.88%), while China accounts for only 12 (1.41%).
The figures of the European Union increase significantly if we add to them the actions of the member states. There were 39 such events. Here we can also add the actions of the EU partners, who announced their accession to the EU sanctions regimes (Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, etc.). They account for 35 more episodes. The total “European segment” comprises 184 events or 21%. That is, we are talking about a very significant share.
It is interesting to look at the distribution of the targets of EU sanctions. Russia (22 cases), Belarus (12), Syria (11), Venezuela (5), Iran (6), Turkey (5), Libya (4) stand out here. Six are related to the topic of human rights, five are related to countering terrorism. Of course, not all of them are negative. Of the 110 episodes initiated directly by the EU, 61 events (55.45%) are negative. 37 decisions (33.63%) are neutral. They often involve the threat of imposing restrictions, but do not imply specific solutions. Only 12 events are positive (10.9%). Among them, for example, humanitarian exemptions from sanctions regimes in connection with the COVID-19 epidemic.
The source of most of the events is the EU Council (57 episodes out of 110). Seven measures taken – resolutions of the European Parliament, which are not binding, 25 episodes – actions of the European Commission. It is noteworthy that 11 events are attributed to the action of the courts. Cases of challenging decisions of the EU Council in the European Court of Justice are widespread.
In the future, the European Union will remain a significant initiator of such measures. One of the problems is their implementation. It is now being implemented by member countries. There is no single coordinating mechanism that would allow to bring the widest range of tasks to a common denominator, from maintaining a single database of persons under sanctions and ending with the systematization of coercive measures for violating the EU restrictive measures regime. It is possible that in the foreseeable future an attempt will be made to create an EU analogue of the American OFAC – the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which is located in the structure of the US Treasury.
Ivan Timofeev, Izvestia newspaper