Council Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 of 18 May 2006 concerning restrictive measures against President Lukashenko and certain officials of Belarus

Any information provided or received in accordance with this Article shall be used for the purposes for which it was provided or received, including ensuring the effectiveness of the measures set out in this Regulation.

Any document held by the Council, the Commission or the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (the ‘High Representative’) for the purpose of ensuring the enforcement of the measures set out in this Regulation, or of preventing the violation or circumvention thereof, shall be subject to professional secrecy and shall enjoy the protection afforded by the rules applicable to the Union institutions. That protection shall also apply to the joint proposals from the High Representative and the Commission for the amendment of this Regulation and to any preparatory documents related to them.

Where the Council decides to subject a natural or legal person, entity or body to the measures referred to in Article 2(1), it shall amend  Annex I accordingly.

The Council shall communicate its decision, including the grounds for the listing, to the natural or legal person, entity or body referred to in paragraph 1, either directly, if the address is known, or through the publication of a notice, providing such natural or legal person, entity or body with an opportunity to present observations.

Where observations are submitted, or where substantial new evidence is presented, the Council shall review its decision and inform the natural or legal person, entity or body accordingly.

The lists in  Annex I shall be reviewed in regular intervals and at least every 12 months.

It shall be prohibited for any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers, including as a marketing carrier in code-sharing or blocked-space arrangements, to land in, take off from or overfly the territory of the Union.

Paragraph 1 shall not apply in the case of an emergency landing or an emergency overflight.

By way of derogation from Article 8b, the competent authorities in the Member States as listed in Annex II may authorise an aircraft to land in, take off from or overfly the territory of the Union if those competent authorities have determined that such landing, take-off or overflight is required for humanitarian purposes or any other purpose consistent with the objectives of this Regulation.

The Member State or Member States concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any authorisation granted under paragraph 1.

The Network Manager for air traffic management network functions of the single European sky shall support the Commission and the Member States in ensuring the implementation of, and compliance with, Articles 2(2) and 8b of this Regulation. The Network Manager shall, in particular, reject all flight plans filed by aircraft operators indicating an intent to carry out activities over the territory of the Union or of Belarus that constitute a violation of this Regulation, such that the pilot is not permitted to fly.

The Network Manager shall regularly supply to the Commission and the Member States, based on the analysis of flight plans, reports on the implementation of Article 8b.

No claims in connection with any contract or transaction the performance of which has been affected, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, by the measures imposed under this Regulation, including claims for indemnity or any other claim of this type, such as a claim for compensation or a claim under a guarantee, notably a claim for extension or payment of a bond, guarantee or indemnity, particularly a financial guarantee or financial indemnity, of whatever form, shall be satisfied, if they are made by:

In any proceedings for the enforcement of a claim, the onus of proving that satisfying the claim is not prohibited by paragraph 1 shall be on the person seeking the enforcement of that claim.

This Article is without prejudice to the right of the persons, entities and bodies referred to in paragraph 1 to judicial review of the legality of the non-performance of contractual obligations in accordance with this Regulation.

By way of derogation from Articles 1bb, 1e, 1f, , 1fd, 1g, 1ga, 1gc, 1s and 1sa the competent authorities may authorise the sale, supply or transfer of goods and technologies listed in Annexes Va, VI, XIV, XVII, XVIII, XX, XXIV and XXV until 31 December 2024, where such sale, supply or transfer is strictly necessary for the divestment from Belarus or the wind-down of business activities in Belarus, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

By way of derogation from Article 1h, as far as mineral products are concerned, and from Articles 1o, 1p, 1q, 1r, 1ra and 1rb, the competent authorities may authorise the import or transfer of goods listed in Annexes VII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XXI, XXII and XXVII until 31 December 2024, where such import or transfer is strictly necessary for the divestment from Belarus or the wind-down of business activities in Belarus, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

By way of derogation from Article 1jc, the competent authorities may authorise the continuation of the provision of services listed therein until 31 December 2024 where such provision of services is strictly necessary for the divestment from Belarus or the wind-down of business activities in Belarus, provided that the following conditions are fulfilled:

The Member State concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any authorisation granted under paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 within 2 weeks of the authorisation.

All authorisations referred to in paragraph 1 with respect to goods and technologies listed in Annex Va to this Regulation and in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2021/821 shall be issued by electronic means, whenever possible, on forms containing at least all the elements of, and in the order provided for in, the model C set out in Annex Vc to this Regulation.

The Council, the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (the ‘High Representative’) shall process personal data that are necessary to carry out their tasks under this Regulation. Those tasks include:

The Council, the Commission and the High Representative may process, where applicable, relevant data relating to criminal offences committed by listed natural persons, to criminal convictions of such persons or to security measures concerning such persons, only to the extent that such processing is necessary for the preparation of Annex I.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the Council, the Commission and the High Representative are designated as ‘controller’ within the meaning of point (8) of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0012]), in order to ensure that the natural persons concerned can exercise their rights under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

The competent authorities of the Member States, including enforcement authorities, customs authorities within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0013]), competent authorities within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0014]), Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council ([^E0015]), and Directive 2014/65/EU, as well as Financial Intelligence Units as referred to in Directive (EU) 2015/849, and administrators of official registers wherein natural persons, legal persons, entities and bodies, as well as immovable or movable property, are registered, shall process and exchange without delay information, including personal data and, if necessary, the information referred to in Article 8j, with other competent authorities of their Member State, with competent authorities of other Member States and with the Commission, if such processing and exchange is necessary to carry out the tasks of the processing authority or the receiving authority under this Regulation, in particular when they detect instances of breach, circumvention or attempts at breach or circumvention of the prohibitions set out in this Regulation. This provision is without prejudice to rules regarding the confidentiality of information held by judicial authorities.

For the purposes of the prohibitions on importing goods provided for in this Regulation, goods physically in the Union may be released as provided for in Article 5, point (26), of the Union Customs Code, by the customs authorities provided that they have been presented to customs in accordance with Article 134 of the Union Customs Code before the entry into force or applicability date of the respective import prohibitions, whichever is latest.

All procedural steps necessary for the release referred to in paragraphs 1 and 5 of the relevant goods pursuant to the Union Customs Code shall be allowed.

The customs authorities shall not allow the release of the goods if they have reasonable grounds to suspect circumvention and shall not authorise the re-export of the goods to Belarus.

Payments in relation to such goods shall be consistent with the provisions and objectives of this Regulation, in particular the prohibition on purchasing.

Goods physically in the Union and presented to customs prior to 1 July 2024 which were stopped in application of this Regulation may be released by the customs authorities under the conditions provided for in paragraphs 1 to 4.

When selling, supplying, transferring or exporting to a third country, with the exception of countries listed in Annex Vba to this Regulation, goods or technology as listed in Annexes XVI, XVII and XXVIII to this Regulation, common high priority items as listed in Annex XXX to this Regulation, or firearms and ammunition as listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 258/2012, exporters shall contractually prohibit re-exportation to Belarus and re-exportation for use in Belarus.

Paragraph 1 shall not apply to:

Paragraph 1 shall not apply to public contracts concluded with a public authority in a third country or with an international organisation.

Exporters shall inform the competent authority of the Member State where they are resident or established of any public contract they concluded that benefited from the exemption under paragraph 3, within 2 weeks of its conclusion. The Member State concerned shall inform the other Member States and the Commission of any information received under this paragraph within 2 weeks of its receipt.

In application of paragraph 1, exporters shall ensure that the agreement with the third-country counterpart contains adequate remedies in the event of a breach of a contractual obligation concluded in accordance with paragraph 1.

If the third-country counterpart breaches any of the contractual obligations concluded in accordance with paragraph 1, exporters shall inform the competent authority of the Member State where they are resident or established as soon as they become aware of the breach.

Member States shall inform each other and the Commission of detected instances of a breach or circumvention of a contractual obligation concluded in accordance with paragraph 1.

Natural and legal persons, entities and bodies that sell, supply, transfer or export common high priority items as listed in Annex XXX or goods as listed in Annex XXXI shall:

Paragraph 1 shall not apply to natural and legal persons, entities and bodies that sell, supply or transfer common high priority items as listed in Annex XXX or goods as listed in Annex XXXI only within the Union or to countries listed in Annex Vba.

Natural and legal persons, entities and bodies shall ensure that any legal person, entity or body established outside the Union that they own or control and that sells, supplies, transfers or exports common high priority items as listed in Annex XXX or goods as listed in Annex XXXI implements the requirements in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1.

Paragraph 3 shall not apply where, due to reasons that it did not cause itself, a natural or legal person, entity or body is not able to exercise control over the legal person, entity or body that it owns.

Any person referred to in the third or fourth indent of Article 10 shall be entitled to recover, in judicial proceedings before the competent courts of a Member State, any direct or indirect damages, including legal costs, incurred by that person, or by a legal person, entity or body that the person referred to in the fourth indent of Article 10 owns or controls, as a consequence of claims lodged with courts in third countries by persons, entities and bodies referred to in Article 8d(1), point (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e), in connection with any contract or transaction the performance of which has been affected, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, by the measures imposed under this Regulation, provided that the person concerned does not have effective access to the remedies under the relevant jurisdiction. Such damages may be recovered from the persons, entities or bodies referred to in Article 8d(1), point (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e), that lodged the claims with the courts in the third country, or from persons, entities or bodies that own or control those entities or bodies.

Without prejudice to paragraph 1, any person referred to in the third or fourth indent of Article 10 shall be entitled to recover, in judicial proceedings before the competent courts of a Member State, any direct or indirect damages, including legal costs, incurred by that person or by a legal person, entity or body that the person referred to in the fourth indent of Article 10 owns or controls, as a consequence of injunctions, orders, reliefs, judgments or other judicial or administrative decisions rendered in third countries other than Belarus, which seek to enforce judgments upholding claims referred to in paragraph 1, provided that the person concerned does not have effective access to the remedies under the relevant jurisdiction. Such damages may be recovered from the persons, entities or bodies that seek or cooperate in the enforcement of judgments upholding claims referred to in paragraph 1 in a third country other than Belarus or from persons, entities or bodies that own or control those entities or bodies, with the exception of their lawyers and of members of the judiciary, and with the exception of persons referred to in the third or fourth indent of Article 10 or legal persons, entities or bodies that the persons referred to in the fourth indent of Article 10 own or control, against whom a judgment upholding claims referred to in paragraph 1 has been issued.

Consistent with respect for the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients guaranteed in Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and, where applicable, without prejudice to rules regarding the confidentiality of information held by judicial authorities, natural and legal persons, entities and bodies shall:

For the purposes of paragraph 1, the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients shall include the confidentiality of communications relating to legal advice provided by other certified professionals who are authorised under national law to represent their clients in judicial proceedings, insofar as such legal advice is provided in connection with pending or prospective judicial proceedings.

The Member State concerned shall transmit to the Commission any relevant information received pursuant to paragraph 1 within one month of receiving it. The Member State concerned may transmit such information in an anonymised form if an investigating or judicial authority has declared it to be confidential in the context of pending criminal investigations or criminal judicial proceedings.

Any additional information received directly by the Commission shall be made available to the Member States.

Any information provided or received in accordance with this Article shall be used only for the purposes for which it was provided or received.

Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties, including as appropriate criminal penalties, applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Regulation and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties provided for must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and may take the voluntary self-disclosure of infringements of the provisions of this Regulation into account as a mitigating factor, in accordance with the respective national law. Member States shall also provide for appropriate measures of confiscation of the proceeds of such infringements.

Member States shall notify these rules to the Commission without delay after entry into force of the Regulation and shall notify it of any subsequent amendment.

Member States shall designate the competent authorities referred to in Articles 3, 4(2) and 5 and identify them in the websites listed in Annex II.

Member States shall notify the Commission of their competent authorities and the contact details thereof by 31 July 2008 and shall notify it of any subsequent amendment without delay.