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Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine

Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 of 17 March 2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine

Article 1

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

  1. ‘claim’ means any claim, whether asserted by legal proceedings or not, made before or after 17 March 2014, 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;

  2. ‘contract or transaction’ means any transaction of whatever form, whatever the applicable law, and 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, particularly 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;

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

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

  5. ‘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;

  6. ‘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 any other change that would enable the funds to be used, including portfolio management;

  7. ‘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; and

    7. documents showing evidence of an interest in funds or financial resources;

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

  9. ‘owning’ a legal person, entity or body means being in possession of 50 % or more of the proprietary rights of a legal person, entity or body, or having a majority interest therein;

  10. ‘controlling’ a legal person, entity or body means, but is not limited to:

    1. having the right or exercising the power to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory body of a legal person, entity or body;

    2. having appointed solely as a result of the exercise of one’s voting rights a majority of the members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of a legal person, entity or body who have held office during the present and previous financial year;

    3. controlling alone, pursuant to an agreement with other shareholders in or members of a legal person, entity or body, a majority of shareholders’ or members’ voting rights in that legal person, entity or body;

    4. having the right to exercise a dominant influence over a legal person, entity or body, pursuant to an agreement entered into with that legal person, entity or body or to a provision in its Memorandum or Articles of Association, where the law governing that legal person, entity or body permits its being subject to such agreement or provision;

    5. having the power to, de facto, exercise the right to exercise a dominant influence referred to in point (iv), without being the holder of that right;

    6. having the right to use all or part of the assets of a legal person, entity or body;

    7. managing the business of a legal person, entity or body on a unified basis, while publishing consolidated accounts; or

    8. sharing jointly and severally the financial liabilities of a legal person, entity or body, or guaranteeing them.

Article 2

1.

All funds and economic resources belonging to, owned, held or controlled by any natural or legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex I shall be frozen.

2.

No funds or economic resources shall be made available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex I.

Article 2a

1.

Article 2(2) shall not apply to funds or economic resources made available by organisations and agencies which are pillar-assessed by the Union and with which the Union has signed a financial framework partnership agreement on the basis of which the organisations and agencies act as humanitarian partners of the Union, provided that the provision of such funds or economic resources is necessary for exclusively humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.

2.

In cases not covered by paragraph 1 of this Article, and by way of derogation from Article 2, the competent authorities may grant specific or general authorisations, under such general or specific conditions as they deem appropriate, to release certain frozen funds or economic resources or to make available certain funds or economic resources, provided that the provision of such funds or economic resources is necessary for exclusively humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.

3.

In the absence of a negative decision, a request for information or a notification for additional time from the competent authority within 5 working days of the date of receipt of a request for authorisation under paragraph 2, the authorisation shall be considered granted.

4.

The Member State concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any authorisation granted under paragraphs 2 and 3 within 2 weeks of the authorisation.

Article 3

1.

Annex I shall include:

  1. natural persons responsible for, supporting or implementing actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, or stability or security in Ukraine, or which obstruct the work of international organisations in Ukraine;

  2. legal persons, entities or bodies supporting, materially or financially, actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine;

  3. legal persons, entities or bodies in Crimea or Sevastopol whose ownership has been transferred contrary to Ukrainian law, or legal persons, entities or bodies which have benefited from such a transfer;

  4. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies supporting, materially or financially, or benefiting from Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea or the destabilisation of Ukraine;

  5. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies conducting transactions with the separatist groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine;

  6. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies supporting, materially or financially, or benefitting from the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine; or

  7. leading businesspersons operating in Russia and their immediate family members, or other natural persons, benefitting from them, or businesspersons, legal persons, entities or bodies involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine;

  8. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies:

    1. facilitating infringements of the prohibition against circumvention of the provisions of this Regulation, or of Council Regulations (EU) No 692/2014(1), (EU) No 833/2014(2) or (EU) 2022/263(3) or of Council Decisions 2014/145/CFSP(4), 2014/386/CFSP(5), 2014/512/CFSP(6) or (CFSP) 2022/266(7); or

    2. otherwise significantly frustrating those provisions; or

  9. legal persons, entities or bodies operating in the Russian IT-sector with a license administered by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) Center for Licensing, Certification, and Protection of State Secrets or a ‘weapons and military equipment’ license administered by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade; or

  10. entities established in Russia, previously owned or controlled by entities established in the Union, ownership or control of which has been compulsorily transferred by the Government of the Russian Federation through laws, regulations, other legislative instruments or other action of a Russian public authority, or natural or legal persons, entities or bodies that have benefitted from such a transfer, and natural persons who have been appointed to the governing bodies of such entities in Russia without the consent of the Union entities which previously owned or controlled them;

  11. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies that own, control, manage or operate vessels that transport crude oil or petroleum products, originating in Russia or exported from Russia, while practicing irregular and high-risk shipping practices as set out in the International Maritime Organisation General Assembly resolution A.1192(33), or that otherwise provide material, technical or financial support to the operations of such vessels; or

  12. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies forming part of, supporting, materially or financially, or benefitting from Russia’s military and industrial complex, including by being involved in the development, production or supply of military technology and equipment; or

  13. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies that have participated in or enabled transfers of ownership, control or economic benefit of the business interests of leading businesspersons who are subject to Union restrictive measures pursuant to the criterion set out in point (g) of this paragraph and listed in Annex I to this Regulation, thereby significantly frustrating those measures, with the exception of transfers expressly permitted pursuant to derogations and exemptions laid down in this Regulation or Regulation (EU) No 833/2014; or

  14. natural or legal persons, entities or bodies responsible for, supporting or implementing actions or policies contributing to the deportation, forced transfer, forced assimilation, including indoctrination, or militarised education of Ukrainian minors,

and natural or legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them.

1a.

If natural persons listed in Annex I die during the period of application of the restrictive measures, the Council may retain the names of the deceased persons on that list if their delisting would pose a risk of undermining the objectives of Union restrictive measures because of a likelihood that the assets concerned would otherwise be used to finance Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine or other actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

1b.

Leading businesspersons operating in Russia listed in Annex I pursuant to paragraph 1, point (g), who claim to have transferred ownership, control or economic benefit of their business interests on or after 24 February 2022 shall continue to be considered as leading businesspersons and maintained in the list set out in Annex I, unless sufficient, recent and reliable information demonstrates that they no longer meet the criterion set out in paragraph 1, point (g).

2.

Annex I shall include the grounds for the listing of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies concerned.

3.

Annex I shall include, where available, information necessary to identify the natural or legal persons, entities or bodies concerned. With regard to natural persons, such information may include names including aliases, date and place of birth, nationality, passport and ID card numbers, gender, address, if known, and function or profession. With regard to legal persons, entities and bodies, such information may include names, place and date of registration, registration number and place of business.

Article 4

1.

By way of derogation from Article 2, the competent authorities of the Member States may authorise the release of certain frozen funds or economic resources, or the making available of certain funds or economic resources, under such conditions as they deem appropriate, after having determined that the funds or economic resources concerned are:

  1. necessary to satisfy the basic needs of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies listed in Annex I, and dependent family members of such natural persons, including payments for foodstuffs, rent or mortgage, medicines and medical treatment, taxes, insurance premiums, and public utility charges;

  2. intended exclusively for payment of reasonable professional fees or reimbursement of incurred expenses associated with the provision of legal services;

  3. intended exclusively for payment of fees or service charges for routine holding or maintenance of frozen funds or economic resources; or

  4. necessary for extraordinary expenses, provided that the relevant competent authority has notified the grounds on which it considers that a specific authorisation should be granted to the competent authorities of the other Member States and to the Commission at least two weeks prior to authorisation; or

  5. to be paid into or from an account belonging to or held by a diplomatic mission, consular post or international organisation enjoying immunities in accordance with international law, in so far as such payments are intended to be used for official purposes of the diplomatic mission, consular post or international organisation.

2.

The Member State concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any authorisation granted under paragraph 1.

Article 5

Article 5a

Article 5b

Article 6

Article 6a

Article 6b

Article 6c

Article 6d

Article 6e

Article 6f

Article 7

Article 8

Article 8a

Article 9

Article 10

Article 11

Article 11a

Article 11b

Article 12

Article 13

Article 14

Article 15

Article 15a

Article 16

Article 16a

Article 17

Article 18

ANNEX I

ANNEX II