BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Bogdan Evtimov, Michael De Boeck and Coline Cauvin, ACQUIS
While the European Union formally maintains that its sanctions do not have extraterritorial application, recent regulatory developments have introduced obli - gations that produce extraterritorial effects in practice. EU-based companies are now required to ensure that their subsidiaries and business partners outside the EU do not engage in conduct that undermines EU sanc - tions. For example, Article 12g of Regulation 833/2014 obliges EU exporters to include contractual clauses preventing re-export to Russia, even in contracts with third-country buyers. Similarly, Article 8a requires EU parent companies to make “best efforts” to prevent their non-EU subsidiaries from violating sanctions. These provisions do not directly bind non-EU entities, but they shift the burden onto EU operators to monitor and influence conduct beyond EU borders. In parallel, the EU increasingly uses asset-freeze listings to target companies in third countries deemed to be facilitating circumvention. Together, these trends mark a func - tional extraterritorial reach of EU sanctions, compel - ling EU entities to reshape their compliance systems to account for foreign counterparties and group-wide activities, particularly in high-risk jurisdictions. 1.4.3 Domestic and/or Supranational Measures Belgium predominantly implements sanctions that are adopted by the UN and by the EU. Some international sanctions are adopted by the United Nations Security Council, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. States must then enact the UN sanctions in their national law. Belgium has adopted a national law (Law of 11 May 1995 on the implementation of UN sanctions) providing for a legal basis in Belgian law to implement UN sanctions. Today, there are 14 ongoing UN sanc - tions regimes that are implemented by Belgium (eg, in respect of Yemen and South Sudan) and which focus on supporting political settlement of conflicts, nuclear non-proliferation, and counter-terrorism. As an EU member state, Belgium also implements EU sanctions decisions and regulations adopted by the Council of the European Union in the context of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy. EU regulations containing economic restrictive measures are directly applicable without the need for a national transpo - sition. Member states are empowered to carry out the enforcement of sanctions domestically. Belgium has adopted a Law of 13 May 2003 to provide for a
legal basis in Belgian law to enforce EU sanctions and impose criminal penalties on violations. Belgium adopted a general Law on 13 May 2003 to provide for a legal basis in Belgian law to implement and enforce EU sanctions. This law foresees a legal basis for decisions on the implementation of EU sanc - tions in Belgian law by the Council of Ministers, pro - vides general competence to the public prosecutor’s office to detect, investigate and pursue legal action against violations and provides for both administrative and criminal penalties for violations. This law may be affected by the upcoming imple - mentation of EU Directive 2024/1226 on the defini - tion of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures, which was due to be transposed into Belgian law by 20 May 2025. How - ever, at the time of writing, Belgium has not yet trans - posed this directive into its national law and little is known regarding the policy choices or timing of the implementation. Nevertheless, EU member states are not prevented from imposing additional sanctions measures against individuals. For example, Belgium has designated dis - tinct individuals or entities in its national lists of asset freezes. Those designations and measures apply in addition to the EU regulations. In Belgium, the key national competent authorities are the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Min - istry of Economy. However, the competences for specific sanctions- related issues or licences are fragmented among several authorities – each with their own scopes of competences, listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014. Among others, these include: • the Belgian Ministry of Finance, which is generally competent for financial sanctions; and • the Ministry of Economy, which is generally com - petent for restrictions on trade in goods. 2. Overview of Regulatory Field 2.1 Primary Regulators
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