BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Coline Cauvin, Delphine Buyle and Yapa Thepkanjana, ACQUIS
measures and expanded designation criteria – for example, as follows. • Article 8a of Regulation 833/2014 requires EU operators to use “best efforts” to ensure that non- EU entities they own or control do not violate EU sanctions. Although the obligation is imposed on the EU operator, it pushes compliance expecta - tions into group activities outside the EU. • Article 12g of Regulation 833/2014 requires EU exporters to include contractual clauses prevent - ing re-exportation to Russia, even in contracts with third-country buyers. • Article 5ad of Regulation 833/2014 prohibits EU operators from engaging, directly or indirectly, in transactions with financial institutions established outside the Union, listed in Annex XLV. Annex XLV targets institutions that provide crypto-asset services or payment services to service persons and entities included in the annexes in Regulation 833/2014 or Regulation 269/2014, or which frus - trate the provisions of those regulations. • The EU has broadened its designation criteria to capture third-country actors involved in sanctions circumvention, shadow-fleet activity, or support for Russia’s military-industrial complex. Non-EU persons and entities may therefore become subject to EU asset-freeze measures where their conduct falls within those criteria. Together, these trends mark a functional extraterri - torial reach of EU sanctions, compelling EU entities to reshape their compliance systems to account for foreign counterparties and group-wide activities, par - ticularly in high-risk jurisdictions. These provisions demonstrate how the practical reach of EU sanctions has been increasingly extended, largely driven by anti-circumvention concerns in the context of Russia sanctions. Nevertheless, the EU maintains that its sanctions do not have an extrater - ritorial scope. 1.4.3 Domestic and/or Supranational Measures Belgium predominantly implements sanctions that are adopted by the UN and by the EU. International sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, must be enacted by the
states in their national law. Belgium has adopted the Law of 11 May 1995 on the implementation of resolu - tions of the UN Security Council, supplemented by the Law of 2 May 2019 on various financial provisions. Today, there are 15 ongoing UN sanctions regimes that are implemented by Belgium (eg, in respect of Yemen and South Sudan) and which focus on sup - porting political settlement of conflicts, nuclear non- proliferation, and counter-terrorism. As an EU member state, Belgium is also responsi - ble for the implementation of EU sanctions decisions and regulations adopted by the Council in the con - text of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. EU sanctions are generally referred to in EU law as “restrictive measures”. EU regulations imposing sanc - tions are directly applicable in the member states, without the need for a national transposition. EU member states are empowered to carry out the enforcement of sanctions, domestically. Belgium has adopted the Law of 13 May 2003 on the implementa - tion of restrictive measures adopted by the Council of the European Union against States, certain persons and entities, which provides for the legal basis in Bel - gian law to enforce EU sanctions and impose criminal penalties on sanctions breaches. The Law of 13 May 2003 empowers the executive to adopt by Royal Decree, deliberated in the Council of Ministers, the measures necessary to implement EU sanctions, and provides for criminal and administrative penalties for infringements. The 2019 amendments to the Law of 13 May 2003 expressly conferred on Treasury officials within Federal Public Service (FPS) Finance the power to detect and record infringements covered by Article 6, alongside the existing powers of the judicial police and Customs and Excise. The Law of 13 May 2003 has recently been reformed following Belgium’s transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/1226 on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for violations of Union restrictive meas - ures. The Directive was due to be transposed by 20 May 2025. Belgium did not meet that deadline and, in March 2026, the Commission sent Belgium a rea - soned opinion for failure to notify full transposition measures.
52 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook