The EU’s Targeted Sanctions Against Russia's Political and Economic Elites – A next step in the logics of non-conviction-based confiscation policies

• In Event: Recent Legislative and Policy Developments on Non-conviction-based confiscation in Europe

Abstract

Since 2014 persons allegedly involved in or supporting the undermining or threatening of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine are subject to freezing measures against their property and other financial resources within the European Union. As part of several comprehensive political and economic sanctioning packages initiated by the Commission and the Council after the invasion of February 2022, these financial sanctions have been significantly extended, currently targeting, inter alia, some 1,200 individuals, most of them of Russian nationality. This article provides a general overview of the concept of the EU's so-called targeted ("smart") sanctions and the adaption of this instrument to Russia's warfare in Ukraine, followed by an exploration of the plans for a further tightening of such measures as proposed by the EU Commission. The intention is to go beyond the – temporary – freezing of assets owned by listed individuals and entities, thus promoting their seizure and confiscation. The new extended measures introduced quite recently in Germany within the legal structures of non-conviction-based confiscation anticipated this new policy direction. The presentation will provide an overview of the EU’s concept of the smart sanctions and their connection to non-conviction-based confiscation policies, followed by a critical analysis of such symbolic legislative activism which raises serious fundamental rights concerns.

Author

• Michael Kilchling, Max Planck Institut (Freiburg)