Sunday June 30, 2024 the EU published amended sanctions regarding Belarus. Most important changes we noted are similar to those with the EU sanctions against Russia;
- a provision for voluntary self disclosure was made, similar to the US. This means that EU Member State national competent authorities have the possibility to take that self-disclosure into account when applying penalties.
- It is made clear that within the EU, companies need to duly take into account publicly or readily available information when carrying out due diligence (customer and transaction related). When such information is not considered during due diligence, a Union operator cannot successfully invoke protection from that "they did not know" and "had no reasonable cause to suspect". So make sure your due diligence on your counterparties and transactions is sufficient! We can help you to achieve this.
- Persons and Companies in the EU who are able to and effectively assert a decisive influence over the conduct of a company established outside the Union, they may incur responsibility for actions of that company that undermine the EU restrictive measures and should use their influence to prevent those actions from occurring.
- Requiring that exporters contractually prohibit the re-exportation to Belarus or re-exportation for use in Belarus of certain goods (‘no-Belarus clause’).
- Requiring Union operators that are selling, supplying, transferring or exporting common high priority items to third countries to implement due diligence mechanisms capable of identifying and assessing risks of exportation to Belarus and mitigating such risks. Moreover, requiring Union operators to ensure that legal persons, entities and bodies established outside the Union that they own or control also implement those requirements.
- Prohibiting the import, purchase or transfer of diamonds and gold from Belarus.
- Export ban on goods and technology suitable for use in oil refining and liquefaction of natural gas.
- Prohibiting the provision of certain services to the Republic of Belarus, its Government, its public bodies, corporations or agencies or to any natural or legal person, entity or body acting on their behalf or at their direction by a) prohibiting the provision of accounting services, auditing services, including statutory audit, bookkeeping services, tax consulting services, business and management consulting, and public relations services, b) banning the provision of advertising, market research and public opinion polling services, as well as product testing and technical inspection services.