Financial and Other Sanctions of the European Union

European Monographs Series

The European Union (EU) has chosen to react to violence and aggression in states outside the block through the imposition of restrictive measures, both autonomous and mandated by the Security Council of the United Nations. In recent years, it has furthermore chosen to react to malicious activities that do not necessarily unfold within the territory of a specific state. To date, the EU has done so in thirty-seven instances, following more than eighty EU legal instruments. This book is the first to thoroughly investigate the origins, nature, and implications of the whole range of sanctions regimes set by the EU.

Breaching international peace and security, violent repression and political stalemate, serious violation of human rights, terrorism, malicious cyber activities and proliferation and use of chemical weapons have urged the EU to adopt restrictive measures. Such measures affect:

• funds and financial services, as well as banking;

• energy;

• gold, precious metals, diamonds and luxury goods;

• cultural property;

• tourism and travel;

• broadcasting;

• arms, weapons and missiles;

• dual-use items, as set both by the EU and by international actors, such as the Australia Group, the Missile Technology Control Regime, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement;

• mining and quarrying; and

• logistics.

The book’s comprehensive coverage includes insights into the legal basis for adopting sanctions by taking in the resolutions of the UN Security Council that were previously adopted or failed to become so, the preference for smart (or targeted) measures over embargoes (or economic sanctions), the principles guiding restrictive measures (including expiration or review), when – and if – a restrictive measure can be challenged, and correlations with US legislation, as the case may be. A special chapter is dedicated to the particularly complex restrictive measures related to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

As a focused and well-organized explication of the EU sanctions regimes, the book’s invaluable guidance in identifying the legislative instruments shaping each sanctions regime, and in producing arguments on the basis of discrepancies among them, will be welcomed by policymakers, scholars and practitioners whose work involves international relations, international peace and security, defence, banking and finance as well as luxury items and fine arts.