The European Commission last week officially launched a public comment period as it considers potential restrictions on outbound investments. Comments are due April 27, after which the commission plans to monitor past and current EU outward investments and “carry out an assessment of risks linked to such monitored transactions.” Potential screening rules could initially focus on outbound investments in a narrow set of technologies, including artificial intelligence, advanced semiconductors, quantum and biotech, the EU said (see 2401240078).
The European Council on Jan. 26 adopted a negotiating mandate on the proposed regulation barring goods made with forced labor from the EU market, the council announced. The mandate included a host of changes to the regulation, including a clarification that the measure's scope would include "products offered for distance sales," the creation of a single forced labor portal and a stronger role for the European Commission in investigating the use of forced labor.
The European Commission on Jan. 25 issued new guidelines for how member states and the commission collect and share export licensing data as the EU prepares its annual export control report (see 2301270011). The new rules “for the first time” state that the annual report “should include relevant information on the licensing and enforcement” of export controls, the guidelines said, “with due respect to the need to ensure the protection of the confidentiality of certain data.”
The European Council on Jan. 22 added six entities to its Sudan sanctions list and six people and five entities to its Syria sanctions list.
The European Council on Jan. 22 created a new sanctions framework targeting Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The bloc also sanctioned six people under the new regime, including various Hamas financiers and a senior Hamas “operative.”
Members of the European Parliament last week called on the bloc to sanction officials in China and Sudan for human rights violations.
The Netherlands' Rotterdam District Court on Jan. 15 sustained the Dutch National Bank's sanctions on an unnamed financial services provider, according to an unofficial translation. The court held that the bank "rightly" found that from July 2015 to March 2018, the financial services provider "systematically failed to comply with several core obligations" by "hardly conducting any customer due diligence" and failing to carry out any sanctions screening.
The European Council and Parliament struck a provisional deal on parts of its anti-money laundering package, which will "for the first time" harmonize AML rules throughout the EU and close loopholes used by criminals to evade sanctions and finance terrorism, the council said this week.
The U.K. on Jan. 15 corrected one entry under its Russia sanctions regime, one under its Belarus sanctions regime and two entries its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime.
The European Commission is urging anyone with information on Russia- or Belarus-related sanctions evasion to submit tips under its online EU sanctions whistleblower tool (see 2203080030). The online tool allows whistleblowers to submit reports anonymously, the bloc said in a Jan. 14 post on the social media platform X.