EU Looking for Greater, Harmonized Sanctions Enforcement

The EU is looking at ways to bolster its sanctions enforcement regime and harmonize it across member states, the Financial Times reported. Mairead McGuinness, the EU's commissioner for financial stability, financial services and the capital markets union, said officials are contemplating opening a version of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. McGuinness said the commission is looking at other enforcement measures as well, including forcing sanctioned parties to disclose their assets, syncing definitions of control across nations and broadening registers of beneficial ownership. The commission further requested reports from member states on sanctions enforcement, FT reported. Along these lines, the European Council requested the consent of the European Parliament to add the violation of restrictive measures to the list of EU crimes laid out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU to crack down on sanctions circumvention (see 2207010014).