The French Court of Cassation requested the European Court of Justice to interpret an element of the EU's sanctions on Iraq. The request comes in a case brought by Dutch air pollution control equipment company Instrubel NV in which a French court found that "preventative attachments" against Montana Management -- a trust fund formerly owned by Saddam Hussein -- were void because Montana hadn't been served. Montana was placed under the EU's Iraq sanctions regime in 2006, an EU Sanctions blog post said. Instead of serving Montana, the Iraqi government was served in the case. The Iraqi government in 2011 took control over the mandate of the Development Fund of Iraq, which the U.N. set up in 2003 to distribute assets seized from the Iraqi regime.

For individuals criminally convicted for the misappropriation of European Union state funds, frozen funds belonging to those individuals relating to the EU's Tunisian sanctions regime can remain frozen after that person has died "until court orders for the recovery of the misappropriated State funds and the payment of fines have been executed," the European Council said in a Feb. 3 regulation. If the deceased individual had not been criminally convicted, then the funds will remain frozen "for a reasonable period of time," the council said. If an action to recover misappropriated funds is brought during that period, the funds will remain frozen until "such action is dismissed or, if it is upheld, until the court’s order for the recovery of the misappropriated funds has been executed."

The U.K. amended seven entries under its Belarus sanctions list, in a Feb. 4 financial sanctions notice. The entry for Dana Holdings, also known as Dana Astra, was amended on the new and previous versions of the Consolidated List, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. Entries for Alexander Ryhorovich Lukashenko, Igor Petrovich Sergeenko, Dmitry Balaba, Aleh Uladzimiravich Matkin, Andrei Mikalaevich Gurtsevich and Mikhail Safarbekovich Gutseriev also were amended but solely on the new version of the Consolidated List. OFSI also removed an alias for the entry of Alexander Vasilevich Shakutin.

The EU renewed for another six month its "EU terrorist list," which lays out individuals, groups and entities subject to sanctions with an eye toward combating terrorism, the European Council said Feb. 3. The restrictive measures now apply to 13 individuals and 21 groups and entities. The list was set up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and are reviewed "at least every six months."

The European Union added five individuals to its Mali sanctions regime due to their actions undermining Mali's political transition. The individuals are Malick Diaw, Ismael Wague, Choguel Maiga, Ibrahim Ikassa Maiga and Adama Ben Diarra, also known as Ben Le Cerveau, all members of the Malian transition government. The restrictive measures include a travel ban and asset freeze. "The EU continues to stand with the people of the Sahel and reaffirms its full commitment to strict compliance with the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law in Mali," the European Council said.

The European Commission gave notice Feb. 7 of the impending expiry of the antidumping duties on certain open mesh fabrics of glass fibers from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, unless a review of the duties is initiated. EU manufacturers can submit a written request for a review up until three months before the Nov. 8 expiration date.

The EU adopted the U.N.'s humanitarian exemption to Afghanistan-related sanctions regimes in a pair of moves from the European Council. In a council regulation, the EU halted asset freezes where imposing such a restriction would hold up funds necessary to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid or support basic human needs in Afghanistan. In a council decision, the EU dropped asset freezes on the processing of funds and the provision of goods and services needed to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid. The U.K. imposed an identical exemption to its Afghanistan sanctions regime last week (see 2201310012).

Officials from the State, Treasury and Commerce departments are meeting with EU officials in Europe this week to discuss sanctions and export control coordination efforts in case Russia invades Ukraine, according to officials from both agencies. The delegation includes several senior officials -- Elizabeth Rosenberg, Treasury’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, and Thea Kendler, assistant secretary for export administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security, among them -- the officials said, who will discuss various “sanctions options” and export control responses against Russia. The officials will meet with delegations from the U.K., France, Belgium and Germany.

The U.K.'s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Legal Directorate released its 2021 annual review, which includes the directorate's sanctions practices. The report discusses the sanctions work on the U.K.'s new corruption sanctions regime and 2021 sanctions updates on Afghanistan and Myanmar. The Legal Directorate said it helped carve out the humanitarian exemption to the Afghanistan sanctions regime and it drafted the 2021 Myanmar sanctions regime in response to the coup in the Southeast Asian country.

The EU should build a sanctions regime against disinformation, a European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference said in the final conclusions of an 18-month investigation. The committee said that the European public and government are "'overwhelmingly' unaware of the severity of the threat posed by foreign autocratic regimes," namely, Russia and China. This leads to a particular vulnerability to cyberattacks and the recruitment of former senior officials to help polarize the public debate, the report said. To counter such threats, the committee recommended supporting "pluralistic media" and fact-checkers, making online platforms invest in language skills to act on illegal and harmful content, designating digital election infrastructure as critical, banning foreign funding of European political parties and improving cybersecurity, among other things. The committee also recommended a sanctions regime to combat disinformation.