EC prepares instructions for European companies to combat sanctions evasion

The EC has provided guidance to companies in the region to combat sanctions circumvention, Report informs referring to the EC press service.

The instruction is a practical guide describing the consistent actions of the EU operators in the strategic risk assessment. Under EU law, operators are required to carry out due diligence when trading with third countries to ensure that their business partners do not circumvent the restrictions.

The purpose of this instruction is to provide a common vision of how operators in the EU should act, exercising discretion in their work, as required by European law, reads the statement.

The EC called on European businesses to pay special attention to partners from third countries, to ensure that they do not circumvent sanctions.

It is emphasized that the instruction was needed against the backdrop of ‘unprecedented restrictive measures’ imposed against Russia and Belarus, and various ‘sophisticated schemes and methods’ of circumventing these sanctions that followed.

The EU, within the 11th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, in June of this year introduced a mechanism to combat the circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions, which will be applied ‘as a last resort’ against third countries. Three companies registered in Hong Kong, two legal entities from the UAE, two from Uzbekistan, and one each from Armenia and Syria have already fallen under personal EU sanctions for circumventing restrictive anti-Russian measures.