BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Coline Cauvin, Delphine Buyle and Yapa Thepkanjana, ACQUIS
4. Delisting Challenges 4.1 Process Administrative Review by the Council of the European Union The individual or entity designated under EU sanc - tions may – within a time limit determined by the Council – submit observations to the Council, asking for a review or removal of their listing. Those obser - vations are submitted only once, and could include detailed reasons and supporting evidence explaining why the listing is not or no longer justified or why the circumstances have changed. The Council reviews the observations and considers the evidence provided as part of a general review for all listed persons from the same third country. If the Council finds the arguments justified, it may decide to remove the individual or entity from the sanctions list. If the Council rejects the request, the individual or entity remains on the sanctions list. The Council must provide sufficient and concrete rea - sons for each (re-)listing decision. Judicial Review by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) The individual or entity can bring an action for annul - ment before the EU’s General Court in accordance with Articles 263, paragraph 4 and Article 275, para - graph 2 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the Euro - pean Union (TFEU). The applicant must argue that the listing is unlawful, presenting grounds such as viola - tions of fundamental rights, lack of sufficient Council evidence, procedural errors or errors of assessment. If the General Court finds the listing unlawful, it annuls the individual listing, which – in principle – should result in the individual’s or entity’s removal from the sanctions list. However, the Council may find new reasons for maintaining the listing of the successful applicant. If the General Court upholds the listing, the individual or entity remains on the list with the same or updated reasons. Compensation of Damages Alongside or following the annulment action, the indi - vidual or entity can file a claim for damages before the
and risk-sharing before supporting any mechanism that could expose Belgium or Euroclear to dispro - portionate legal or financial risk. In December 2025, EU leaders did not proceed with the reparations loan at that stage and instead agreed to provide Ukraine with a EUR90 billion loan for 2026–2027 based on EU borrowing, while calling for further technical and legal work on a possible mechanism linked to Russia’s immobilised assets. A second important development concerns the trans - position of Directive (EU) 2024/1226 on the definition of criminal offences and penalties for violations of Union restrictive measures. In March 2026, the Com - mission sent Belgium a reasoned opinion for failure to notify full transposition measures. In July 2026 Bel - gium adopted the draft law transposing the Directive, which is planned to enter into force on 1 September 2026. Once in force, the transposing law will alter the Belgian penalties framework as discussed in 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions . 3.2 Future Developments Legal Developments A recent development concerns the EU’s increasing use of more targeted sanctions measures “on a rolling basis” – the so-called “mini-packages”, alongside the adoption of the large numbered sanctions packages. The EU has indicated that it intends to adopt certain measures, in particular listings of vessels associated with Russia’s shadow fleet, more frequently rather than waiting for the next comprehensive package of sanctions against Russia. This approach is intended to allow the EU to react more quickly to newly identi - fied vessels, entities and circumvention networks. This shift is already visible in practice. In June 2026, while negotiations on the 21st package of sanctions were ongoing, the Council adopted a separate set of sanctions targeting, among others, Russia’s military- industrial complex and shadow fleet ecosystem. The future EU sanctions landscape may therefore increas - ingly combine comprehensive sanctions packages with smaller and more frequent targeted measures.
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