BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Coline Cauvin, Delphine Buyle and Yapa Thepkanjana, ACQUIS
squarely within an exemption, no licence should in principle be required to provide that service. In prac - tice, however, obtaining confirmation or an authorisa - tion from the competent authority may still be advis - able to facilitate the co-operation from intervening banks to receive payment for such services. For that reason, any licensing or comfort-letter strategy should be considered at the outset of a client matter. 2.4 Reporting In Belgium, financial institutions must report immedi - ately to the Treasury within FPS Finance the persons or entities detected that are subject to asset freeze measures. The National Bank of Belgium recommends that this reporting be made by the AML Compliance Officer (AMLCO). In such case, the AMLCO provides the Treasury with all the information at its disposal in order to enable the Treasury to carry out the necessary verifications – for example, a copy of the identity card or passport of the person concerned, as well as a ref - erence to the regulation or decision that imposes the sanction and which includes the name of the person or entity that is subject to the sanction. Besides the asset-freezing measure and its notifica - tion to FPS Finance’s Treasury, it may also be nec - essary to make a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to the authority in charge of AML – namely, the Bel - gian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit ( Cellule de Traitement des Informations Financières / Cel voor Financiële Informatieverwerking , or CTIF-CFI). 3. Recent and Future Legal Developments 3.1 Significant Court Decisions or Legal The Belgian courts generally adhere to the provisions of EU law and EU guidelines issued by the Commis - sion regarding the implementation and enforcement of EU sanctions and may refer preliminary references to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) when in doubt on the proper interpretation of the provisions of EU sanctions. Developments Court Decisions
Despite several projects to increase the publication and dissemination of Belgian courts’ case law, there is generally little publicly accessible case law on EU restrictive measures and export controls by the civil and administrative courts. As a general rule, disputes involving the impact of sanctions on a business transaction may be litigat - ed before competent civil courts. Infringements are prosecuted before criminal courts, and decisions on licences issued by the national competent authorities – often either FPS Economy or FPS Finance – may be challenged at the highest administrative court, the Council of State. Reuters reported that, in June 2026, the Brussels Criminal Court issued a judgment concerning a Rus - sia sanctions-evasion scheme. Three individuals were convicted in connection with the exportation of restricted goods to Russia through intermediary juris - dictions, including Hong Kong and Kazakhstan, using front companies. The convictions reportedly included criminal organisation, illegal exports, forgery and cus - toms fraud. This appears to be one of the few publicly reported Belgian convictions concerning Russia-relat - ed sanctions circumvention. Similarly, there is only limited case law publicly avail - able from the Council of State on appeals against negative licence decisions to release frozen assets. Legal Developments EU measures concerning immobilised Russian sover - eign assets remain particularly important for Belgian practice because Euroclear – one of the world’s lead - ing international central securities depositories – is based in Belgium. The 2024 EU framework allowing net profits generated by immobilised Russian central bank assets held in EU central securities depositories to be used in support of Ukraine continues to apply. However, the more significant recent development was the debate in late 2025 over a possible repara - tions loan linked to cash balances associated with those immobilised assets. Belgium played a central role in that debate because of Euroclear’s exposure, with the Belgian Prime Min - ister, Bart De Wever, seeking EU-wide guarantees
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