Europe’s highest court upheld today EU sanctions against Moscow over
its intervention in Ukraine, including on its state-controlled oil
giant Rosneft in a ruling that asserts the court’s jurisdiction over the
EU’s foreign policy.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said “restrictive measures … in
response to the crisis in Ukraine against certain Russian undertakings,
including Rosneft, are valid.”
The EU slapped sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea from
Ukraine in 2014 and stepped them up as Moscow went on to support a
separatist rebellion in Ukraine’s industrial east.
With the ruling, the ECJ established its jurisdiction to rule on
matters of the EU’s common foreign and security policy, an area of
fierce contention between Brussels and national governments seeking to
maintain sovereignty.
The court said it believed encroaching on Rosneft’s right to do
business was in proportion with the severity of sanctions imposed on
Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
“The Court holds that the importance of the objectives pursued by the
contested acts is such as to justify certain operators being adversely
affected,” it said in its judgment.
The verdict can become the basis for a similar decision on the
lawsuit of Rosneft in the Higher Court in London, and also creates a
precedent for making judgments on claims of other Russian companies.
The court ruled that the EU sanctions against Rosneft must not be
used for suspension of banking payments or any other form of freezing of
the company’s assets.
According to the court’s verdict, prohibitive measures do not concern
payments (of the company) by banks. They are not aimed at freezing bank
assets (of the company).
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/eu-court-upholds-sanctions-russias-oil-major-rosneft-justified/