Sanctions 2025

BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Valerijus Ostrovskis, Bogdan Evtimov, Michael De Boeck and Coline Cauvin, ACQUIS

7.3.2 Criminal Penalties As per the breach of other EU sanction prohibitions, circumventing EU sanctions can be a criminal offence, with penalties determined by the national laws of EU member states (including fines and imprisonment). As stated in 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions , the provi - sions of the Belgian Penal Code are generally appli - cable to these offences, meaning that one may be prosecuted as an accomplice to a sanctions violation for (unsuccessful) attempts to violate or circumvent sanctions. Funds or assets considered to be illegal proceeds from sanctions violations – including cir - cumvention – may be confiscated, notwithstanding any imposed criminal penalties. Under Article 6 of the Belgian Sanctions Law, individu - als and/or legal entities found in breach of EU restric - tive measures face both administrative and criminal liability in the range of imprisonment from eight days to five years, and criminal fines between EUR25 and EUR25,000, and/or administrative fines ranging from EUR250 to EUR2,500,000. Both administrative and criminal fines are subject to multiplication under the “opdeciemen” system, which currently applies a factor of eight, whereas prison sentences may be converted into monetary fines in accordance with the conversion of criminal sentences in respect of legal entities under Article 41bis of the first book of the Belgian Criminal Procedure. As discussed in 1.4.3 Domestic and/or Suprana- tional Measures , this may be affected by the upcom - ing implementation of EU Directive 2024/1226 on the definition 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. However, at the time of writing, Belgium has not yet transposed this directive into its national law and little is known regarding the policy choices or timing of the implementation.

interpreted uniformly in line with their systemic and teleologic meaning within the EU regulation, for which the EC’s FAQs and the Council of the European Union guidance can provide meaningful reference. 7.3 Circumvention 7.3.1 Prohibiting Provisions There are no specific provisions in Belgian law relating to circumvention because the EU’s sanctions regu - lations are, as a matter of EU law, directly applica - ble in Belgium. However, violations of EU sanctions – including the provisions prohibiting circumvention of EU sanctions – fall under the criminal penalties for violations of EU restrictive measures imposed by the Law of 13 May 2003 (as consolidated after legislative adjustments in 2019). The EU has provisions prohibiting the circumvention of sanctions, ensuring entities and individuals do not undermine sanctions’ effectiveness. By way of exam - ple, in the EU regulations targeting Russia: • Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 prohibits participation in activities to circumvent sanctions (Article 12) and requires compliance information (Article 8); and • Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 contains a similar prohibition (Article 9). Other general anti-circumvention provisions are pre - sent in many EU regulations, forbidding activities that directly or indirectly bypass sanctions. Compliance with anti-circumventing measures is enforced by EU member states, with penalties for violations.

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