Council Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 of 18 May 2006 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus and the involvement of Belarus in the Russian aggression against Ukraine

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘funds’ means financial assets and benefits of every kind, including but not limited to:

   1. cash, cheques, claims on money, drafts, money orders and other payment instruments;

   2. deposits with financial institutions or other entities, balances on accounts, debts and debt obligations;

   3. publicly- and privately-traded securities and debt instruments, including stocks and shares, certificates representing securities, bonds, notes, warrants, debentures and derivatives contracts;

   4. interest, dividends or other income on or value accruing from or generated by assets;

   5. credit, right of set-off, guarantees, performance bonds or other financial commitments;

   6. letters of credit, bills of lading, bills of sale;

   7. documents evidencing an interest in funds or financial resources.

2. ‘freezing of funds’ means preventing any move, transfer, alteration, use of, access to, or dealing with funds in any way that would result in any change in their volume, amount, location, ownership, possession, character, destination or other change that would enable the use of the funds, including portfolio management.

3. ‘economic resources’ means assets of every kind, whether tangible or intangible, movable or immovable, which are not funds but can be used to obtain funds, goods or services.

4. ‘freezing of economic resources’ means preventing the use of economic resources to obtain funds, goods or services in any way, including, but not limited to, by selling, hiring or mortgaging them.

5. ‘territory of the Community’ means the territories of the Member States, including their airspace, to which the Treaty is applicable, under the conditions laid down in the Treaty.

6. ‘technical assistance’ means any technical support related to repairs, development, manufacture, assembly, testing, maintenance, or any other technical service, and may take forms such as instruction, advice, training, transmission of working knowledge or skills or consulting services; including verbal forms of assistance.

7. ‘belarusian air carrier’ means an air transport undertaking holding a valid operating licence or equivalent issued by the competent authorities of Belarus;

8. ‘dual-use goods and technology’ means the items listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽¹⁾;

9. ‘investment services’ means the following services and activities:

   1. reception and transmission of orders in relation to one or more financial instruments;

   2. execution of orders on behalf of clients;

   3. dealing on own account;

   4. portfolio management;

   5. investment advice;

   6. underwriting of financial instruments and/or placing of financial instruments on a firm commitment basis;

   7. placing of financial instruments without a firm commitment basis;

   8. any service in relation to the admission to trading on a regulated market or trading on a multilateral trading facility.

10. ‘transferable securities’ means the following classes of securities, including in the form of crypto-assets, which are negotiable on the capital market, with the exception of instruments of payment:

    1. shares in companies and other securities equivalent to shares in companies, partnerships or other entities, and depositary receipts in respect of shares;

    2. bonds or other forms of securitised debt, including depositary receipts in respect of such securities;

    3. any other securities giving the right to acquire or sell any such transferable securities or giving rise to a cash settlement determined by reference to transferable securities.

11. ‘money-market instruments’ means those classes of instruments which are normally dealt in on the money market, such as treasury bills, certificates of deposit and commercial papers and excluding instruments of payment;

12. ‘credit institution’ means an undertaking the business of which is to take deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant credit for its own account;

13. ‘brokering services’ means:

    1. the negotiation or arrangement of transactions for the purchase, sale or supply of goods and technology or of financial and technical services, including from a third country to any other third country; or

    2. the selling or buying of goods and technology or of financial and technical services, including where they are located in third countries for their transfer to another third country;

14. ‘public corporation’ means an undertaking, other than a credit institution, established in Belarus with over 50 % public ownership, or under public control, as of 1 June 2021;

15. ‘claim’ means any claim, whether asserted by legal proceedings or not, made before, on or after the date of entry into force of this Regulation, under or in connection with a contract or transaction, and includes in particular:

    1. a claim for performance of any obligation arising under or in connection with a contract or transaction;

    2. a claim for extension or payment of a bond, financial guarantee or indemnity of whatever form;

    3. a claim for compensation in respect of a contract or transaction;

    4. a counterclaim;

    5. a claim for the recognition or enforcement, including by the procedure of exequatur, of a judgment, an arbitration award or an equivalent decision, wherever made or given;

16. ‘contract or transaction’ means any transaction of whatever form and whatever the applicable law, whether comprising one or more contracts or similar obligations made between the same or different parties; for this purpose, ‘contract’ includes a bond, guarantee or indemnity, in particular a financial guarantee or financial indemnity, and credit, whether legally independent or not, as well as any related provision arising under, or in connection with, the transaction;

17. ‘financing or financial assistance’ means any action, irrespective of the particular means chosen, whereby the person, entity or body concerned, conditionally or unconditionally, disburses or commits to disburse its own funds or economic resources, including but not limited to grants, loans, guarantees, suretyships, bonds, letters of credit, supplier credits, buyer credits, import or export advances and all types of insurance and reinsurance, including export credit insurance; payment, as well as terms and conditions of payment, of the agreed price for a good or a service, made in line with normal business practice, does not constitute financing or financial assistance;

18. ‘partner country’ means a country applying a set of export control measures substantially equivalent to those set out in this Regulation, as listed in Annex Vb;

19. ‘consumer communication devices’ means devices used by private individuals such as personal computers and peripherals (including hard drives and printers), mobile telephones, smart televisions, memory devices (USB drives), and consumer software for those devices;

20. ‘central securities depository’ means a legal person as defined in point 1 of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽²⁾;

21. ‘deposit’ means a credit balance which results from funds left in an account or from temporary situations deriving from normal banking transactions and which a credit institution is required to repay under the legal and contractual conditions applicable, including a fixed-term deposit and a savings deposit, but excluding a credit balance where:

    1. its existence can only be proven by a financial instrument as defined in Article 4(1)(15) of Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽³⁾, unless it is a savings product which is evidenced by a certificate of deposit made out to a named person and which exists in a Member State on 2 July 2014;

    2. its principal is not repayable at par;

    3. its principal is only repayable at par under a particular guarantee or agreement provided by the credit institution or a third party;

22. ‘investor citizenship schemes’ (or "golden passports") means the procedures put in place by a Member State, which allow third-country nationals to acquire its nationality in exchange for pre-determined payments and investments;

23. ‘investor residence schemes’ (or "golden visas") means the procedures put in place by a Member State, which allow third-country nationals to obtain a residence permit in a Member State in exchange for pre-determined payments and investments;

24. ‘trading venue’, as defined in Article 4(1)(24) of Directive 2014/65/EU, means a regulated market, a multilateral trading facility or an organised trading facility;

25. ‘road transport undertaking’ means any natural or legal person, entity or body engaged with a commercial purpose in the transport of freight by means of motor vehicles or combinations of vehicles;

26. ‘competent authorities’ means the competent authorities of the Member States as identified on the websites listed in Annex II;

27. ‘energy sector’ means a sector covering the following activities with the exception of civil nuclear related activities:

    1. the exploration, production, distribution within Belarus or mining of crude oil, natural gas or solid fossil fuels, the refining of fuels, the liquefaction of natural gas or regasification;

    2. the manufacture or distribution within Belarus of solid fossil fuel products, refined petroleum products or gas; or

    3. the construction of facilities or installation of equipment for, or the provision of services, equipment or technology for, activities related to power generation or electricity production;

28. ‘crypto-asset’ means crypto-asset as defined in Article 3(1), point (5), of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁴⁾;

29. ‘payment services’ means services as defined in Article 4, point (3), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁵⁾.