EU trade sanctions in response to situation in Ukraine

EU sanctions regulations have direct effect in all Member States of the EU, and, as such, are legally binding on all natural and legal persons in Ireland. Private companies, therefore, have an obligation to ensure that they are in full compliance with these new measures. A natural or legal person who contravenes a provision of an EU sanctions regulation shall be guilty of an offence and liable to prosecution.

 The sixth package of EU sanctions comes into effect on 4 June 2022 and the major trade-related elements of the package are as follows:

I A ban on the importation of crude oil and petroleum products originating in Russia.

II An expansion of the list of goods and technology which may contribute to the technological enhancement of Russia’s defence and security sector and whose export is prohibited. This includes 80 chemicals which can be used to produce chemical weapons.

III An expansion of the list of items that generate significant revenues for Russia whose import into the EU is prohibited.

IV An expansion of the list of military-affiliated end-user entities in Russia and Belarus subject to tighter export restrictions.

V A ban on providing accounting; auditing; tax consulting; management consulting; and public relations services to entities established in Russia.

VI The exclusion of additional Russian and Belarusian financial institutions from the SWIFT payments system.

VII Further additions to the lists of Russian and Belarusian individuals and entities subject to financial sanctions.

1,186 Russian and 130 Belarusian individuals and entities are currently subject to financial sanctions. Therefore, traders should carry out thorough due diligence on all parties to a transaction to avoid inadvertently breaching the sanctions.