(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (KUNA) -- The European Commission Friday put forward a proposal to harmonise criminal offences and penalties for the violation of EU sanctions within the 27-member bloc.
While the Russian war in Ukraine is ongoing, it is paramount that EU sanctions are fully implemented and the violation of those measures does not pay off, it said in a press release.
The Commission published a list of criminal offences which violate EU sanctions, such as making funds or economic resources available to the sanctioned entity or person, entering into transactions with third countries, which are prohibited by EU sanctions, or trading in goods or services whose import, export, sale, purchase, transfer, transit or transport is prohibited or restricted, etc.
Offences will cover circumventing an EU sanction: this means bypassing or attempting to bypass sanction by concealing funds or concealing the fact that a person is the ultimate owner of funds.
Depending on the offence, the individual person could be liable to a maximum penalty of at least five years in prison; companies could be liable to penalties of no less than 5 percent of the total worldwide turnover of the company in the business year preceding the fining decision.
The proposal will now be discussed by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the EU has adopted a series of sanctions against Russian and Belarussian individuals and companies. (end)
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