10-point plan against circumvention
Habeck wants to make Russia sanctions more targeted
By Philip Scupin
02/23/2023, 00:01
The EU wants to weaken Putin’s war industry with sanctions packages. But apparently many outlawed products end up in Russia via detours. Economics Minister Habeck is now planning tougher countermeasures.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens wants to fight the circumvention of sanctions against Russia more than before. This emerges from a 10-point paper by his ministry, which RTL/ntv is exclusively available in advance. The paper states that foreign trade data indicate that EU-sanctioned goods are exported “to a significant extent” from the EU and thus also from Germany to certain third countries and from there to Russia. “We must work together to oppose these circumvention activities more effectively than before, at national and EU level,” said the Habeck Ministry. In coordination with the other departments of the federal government, they will work to ensure that this is the focus of an eleventh package of sanctions from the European Union.
Recently there had been more and more reports that sanctioned products from the EU were increasingly being exported to third countries and from there to Russia. These include vehicles, key technologies such as semiconductors or other goods important for military technology. There are even indications of increased exports of refrigerators and washing machines containing computer chips that may be important for Russia.
Among other things, Habeck is now demanding stricter export conditions for sanctioned goods that are important for the Russian war machine. Companies should only be allowed to export to certain third countries if they submit transparent end-use declarations as part of the export declaration. Deliberate violations should be punished across Europe if possible.
Habeck wants to increase pressure on third countries
The minister also wants to achieve stricter enforcement options in the EU. He would like to propose a new listing criterion to the European Council: According to this, people and companies should be able to be sanctioned if they have passed on a product of EU origin to Russia via a company from a third country. “We are also working in Brussels to create a legal basis for sanctions in order to exclude certain companies from third countries from receiving sanctioned goods,” says the ministry paper.
Habeck also wants to increase the pressure on third countries. For this, a legal framework is needed at the European level in order to persuade “non-cooperative jurisdictions” to cooperate – for example with the threat of lifting tariff relief.
The Greens Minister is also calling for an obligation addressed to everyone: Anyone who has information relevant to sanctions must report it to the sanctions enforcement authorities. States such as Turkey, China or India, which are not participating in the sanctions against Moscow and are not themselves affected by punitive measures, are suspected. It is also noticeable that trade flows from Germany to neighboring Russian countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan or Armenia have increased significantly in the past year.