DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Anders Amstrup Fournais and Sarah Bisgaard Møller, Hafnia Law Firm LLP
to the exemptions in Article 4 (1)(a) (to satisfy the basic needs of designated persons or of dependent family members) or the exemption in Article 4 (2)(b) (to pay for legal services). Other exemptions apply by virtue of Article 4 (1)(c)–(e). These exemptions are duplicated across the relevant EU Council Regulations that set out sanctions rules against hostile regimes other than Russia. Further, there are legal bases in the various EU Council Regulations (against Russia, Iran, Syria, etc) enabling the competent authorities to authorise the release of frozen funds or future transactions that are neces - sary for medical and pharmaceutical purposes, for humanitarian purposes, to prevent a health crisis or any event that may have detrimental effects on the environment, or to exercise precautionary measures following a natural catastrophe. There is scope for granting the release of frozen pay - ments to satisfy arbitral awards issued prior to the date that a person or entity was designated. The con - ditions are strict and include, inter alia, that the pay - ment cannot benefit the designated person or entity. Licences are enacted for particular policy purposes; for instance, in relation to the Russia sanctions, there is now scope for allowing trade in fertilisers and agri - cultural products provided the competent authority in an EU member state has approved that sufficient ring-fencing (called “fire-walling” by the EU) measures are in place to ensure that a designated person or entity does not exercise ownership or control over the fertilisers and agricultural products, or any payments made to purchase such products. This is addressed in an EU Guidance Note issued in May 2023. The under - lying policy has been stated in Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 (see Recital 12 of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1269: “The Union is committed to avoid - ing all measures which might lead to food insecurity around the globe. Consequently, none of the meas - ures in this Regulation or any of those adopted earlier in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine target in any way the trade in agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilisers, between third countries and Russia”). There is also authority under Article 6e of Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 for the competent authority in Den -
mark to grant the release of frozen funds after having determined that such funds or economic resources are necessary for the purchase, import or transport of agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilisers. It is important to be aware of such policy-driven exemptions. The description is not exhaustive. Legal advice should be obtained by any party seeking a general licence or There is no general licence applicable across all EU sanctions for the provision of legal services to des - ignated persons or entities. This obviously must be weighed against the European Charter of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which have provisions on access to justice. For this reason, there are exemptions enabling law - yers to represent Russian clients in litigation and arbi - tration. There is an important ban under Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 prohibiting legal representation of the Government of Russia and legal entities (busi - nesses) in Russia. This does not apply to represen - tation of natural persons in Russia, which has been confirmed by the Danish Bar and Law Society. 2.4 Reporting In practice, the most important reporting obligation is with respect to asset freezing. This is important for banks that routinely freeze payments that benefit designated persons or entities. Such freezing must be reported to the Danish Business Authority. There are other reporting obligations across the more than 40 EU Council Regulations that contain the current EU sanctions (see, for instance, Article 8 of Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014), and it would exceed the scope of this article to list them all. a concrete release of frozen funds. 2.3.2 Provision of Legal Services
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