Brussels wants clarification as to why we are violating a European regulation
The European Commission is persistently curious about the compilation of the so-called Bulgarian Magnitsky list, which includes 54 people related to the sanctioned. The EC has asked for explanations from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance about the legal grounds for the restrictions imposed on related individuals and companies with the Bulgarian-sanctioned Magnitsky Bulgarians – Vasil Bozhkov, Delyan Peevski and Ilko Zhelyazkov. This was announced by the Bivol website, referring to official correspondence between the EC and the government of Stefan Yanev. Lawyers in Brussels believe Bulgaria has illegally expanded the list to include related parties, drawing an analogy with anti-money laundering measures.
The EC has sent questions to the Permanent Representation of Bulgaria in Brussels, asking for explanations on how an expanded list of 21 related to sanctioned individuals and 33 legal entities corresponds to
principle of
extraterritoriality,
which includes the American law “Magnitsky”.
Mikhail Keller, Political Assistant at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets (DG FISMA), asked about Bulgaria’s “blacklist” under Council of Ministers Decision №441 of 4 June 2021.
“We have learned that public institutions in Bulgaria have ordered the termination of relations with the relevant individuals and companies, and Bulgarian banks have been asked to suspend their transactions,” the EC representative wrote. – Such unilateral action as a result of sanctions by a third country is
serious occasion
for concern
by the European Commission, “he wrote. Under EU law, the interests of the Union and its citizens must be protected by the direct extraterritorial application of legislation adopted by non-EU countries. This is laid down in Council Regulation 2271 of 1996.
In Art. 1 of the Regulation states that it aims to provide protection against the extraterritorial application of the laws set out in the Annex to this Regulation (at that time the US sanctions laws against Iran, Cuba and Libya), including by-laws and other legal instruments, and against actions taken on the basis of or resulting from those acts, and to counteract their effects where the application of those acts affects the interests of the persons referred to in Article 11 (natural persons resident in the Community who are nationals of a Member State as well as legal persons established in the Community) who carry out international trade operations and / or capital movements and ancillary commercial activities between the Community and third countries’.
The EC is embarrassed by the expansion of the list on local soil. Some observers attribute this to anti-American sentiment in Brussels, but this is more speculation. In fact, even when compiling the so-called Bulgarian list, many lawyers warned of such a development, because the legal basis for imposing sanctions on related parties only on presumption, without an effective sentence, is not very convincing.
The United States has the right to impose whatever sanctions it wants on whomever it wants. But expanding the list locally only on the assumption of connectivity is like lawlessness. And it contradicts an explicit EU regulation. The Bulgarian list was made by analogy with the law on measures against money laundering, but lawyers familiar with EU law foresaw such a reaction.
Late last year, the EU passed its own law, popularly known as the European Magnitsky Act, but it provides for sanctions only for individuals and legal entities convicted of human rights abuses.
The European Parliament insists that the law include cases of serious corruption, as in the American “Magnitsky”, but for now this is just a wish.
On Tuesday, a temporary parliamentary committee will hear the Minister of Justice Yanaki Stoilov on legislative changes to limit the negative effects imposed on Bulgarian individuals and legal entities, the sanctions under the global law “Magnitsky” on the Bulgarian financial and economic system.
The Ministry of Justice has not received a letter from the EC.
And the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Finance did not comment on the case. Before Stoilov, BNB Governor Dimitar Radev will be heard.
“There are indications that
there will be a new one
list by
“Magnetic”,
which will be expanded with people close to the GERB government. This was stated by Ivaylo Mirchev from “Democratic Bulgaria” on BNT.
Our ambassador to Washington met in June with Grant Murphy, an adviser in the Treasury Department at the Treasury Department, to advise on how to deal with individuals and companies on the global list.
Even then, there was speculation that there would be new faces, but so far this has not happened.
Ivaylo Mirchev also commented that the election of a new BNB governor by this parliament was not justified precisely because of the role of the BNB in the Bulgarian list.
Here is what Vasil Bozhkov wrote on Facebook: “Half a month ago, I publicly stated my desire to be heard by the Magnitsky parliamentary committee. No one has called me yet. On the other hand, the EC called our authorities in connection with their actions to implement extraterritorial laws on the territory of an independent EU member state. “
– .
