EU Floats Potential Blocking Statute Changes
The European Union's blocking statute should be revised due to the increasing complexity and proliferation of extra-territorial sanctions and the bloc's "strong exposure to certain third countries," the European Commission suggested in a recently published impact assessment of the statute. The blocking regulations are meant to protect EU businesses from extra-territorial sanctions, including those imposed by the U.S., which are increasingly leading to global sanctions compliance issues in Europe (see 2108020030 and 2002190038).
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The commission identified several options to bolster the blocking law, including taking additional commercial measures to protect EU operators, streamlining how it currently applies the blocking statute and reducing the administrative burden for compliance with the regulations, the impact assessment said. It said those objectives can be met by empowering the commission to apply countermeasures against a third-party country or person benefiting from extra-territorial sanctions or by providing a "financial or other" award to EU actors that don't comply with extraterritorial sanctions. Other policy changes could streamline the compliance authorization request process and clarify other restrictions on complying with extra-territorial sanctions. But the commission said it hasn't decided whether to pursue any of those options. "All elements of the initiative described by this document, including its timing, are subject to change," the document said.
The commission said in a post on its website that it will allow interested parties to fill out a public online questionnaire to provide feedback on the policy options and give the EU more "evidence with regard to the nature and impact" of extra-territorial sanctions. The consultation period will run until Aug. 30 at midnight, Brussels local time. The EU will look to hear from “public authorities, EU businesses, including trade associations and foreign businesses active in the EU; research and academic institutions, think-tanks, and non-governmental organisations; international organisations with an interest in the subject matter; non-EU countries, in particular those who share the same outlook or have put in place blocking legislation similar to the EU's," the impact assessment said.