Are EU sanctions going too far? A critical assessment

Based on a legal opinion commissioned by NAÏMA Strategic Legal Services GmbH Berlin representatives of the EU administration, the legal profession, experts on international law, sanctions specialists and political scientists will discuss the topic "Are EU sanctions going too far? A critical assessment".

The authors of the expert opinion, Dr. Anna Oehmichen (Germany) and Salomé Lemasson (France) are criminal lawyers and experts on sanctions, who are taking a critical look at the Russia-related EU sanctions regime, which was created under enormous time pressure. The result is a legal opinion with explosive findings: The sanctions packages have legal and operational shortcomings. There is a lack of coherence, the terminology is often too vague and there is a lack of transparency for criteria and standards of proof.

What's more, while the sanctions themselves are not criminal in nature, the consequences that those sanctioned must bear are all the more so. And it is precisely here that things may become critical for asset freeze sanctions: Should the EU Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rule that the sanctions are ultimately criminal measures, then all individuals and companies who are to be placed on a sanctions list or who have already been sanctioned would be entitled to a due process within a criminal procedure before even put on the list. There would have to be public court hearings and evidence for each individual case.

With this conference we want to shed light on different aspects of Russia-related sanctions. Our goal is to contribute to improving them, strengthening them and bringing parts of the sanctions closer to the principles of the rule of law.