On addressing impunity through EU sanctions, including the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (so-called ‘EU Magnitsky Act’)
A-10-2025-0266
Committee on Foreign Affairs · Rapporteur: Antonio LópezIstúriz White
- Voted on · Adopted 440–127–59 · See the decision →
- Full procedure 2025/2049
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This resolution addresses impunity through EU sanctions, focusing on the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EUGHRSR). It calls for impact assessments, broader listings, anti-corruption sanctions, and better enforcement.¶¶¶ It urges the Council to include transnational repression, core international crimes, and political/military leaders in listings, and to improve transparency, civil society input, and parliamentary oversight.¶¶¶ It calls for preventing circumvention through clearer guidance, cross-listing, and reviewing derogation clauses, and for using frozen assets to benefit victims.¶¶¶
Committee position. The Committee on Foreign Affairs proposes a resolution that supports the EUGHRSR but calls for its review and improvement, including broader listings, anti-corruption sanctions, and better enforcement.¶¶¶
Key points
- Reiterates support for the EUGHRSR as a tool to hold accountable perpetrators, enablers, and beneficiaries of serious human rights violations, including immediate family members.¶
- Calls for a comprehensive impact assessment of the EUGHRSR and its review based on findings, with continuous review of listings at least every 12 months.¶¶
- Urges alignment of listings with like-minded partners and the UN Security Council, and with international accountability mechanisms such as the International Criminal Court.¶¶
- Fully supports anti-corruption sanctions, recommending extending the regime to cover large-scale corruption and abuse of state procurement, and regrets the Council blocking the Commission's proposal.¶
- Calls for listings for human rights violations via digital surveillance, spyware, and environmental destruction, and for a working definition of transnational repression to sanction non-state proxies.¶¶
- Condemns Member States allowing sanctioned individuals to enter EU territory, urging full compliance and Commission enforcement.¶
- Urges the EEAS to define legal pathways to use interest from frozen assets for victims and to explore procedures for ill-gotten gains.¶
- Calls for listings of individuals indicted by international courts and perpetrators of core international crimes, and for correcting geographical and thematic imbalances.¶¶
- Urges extending designations to political and military leaders, not just low-level officials, and to address sexual and gender-based violence and persecution of women leaders.¶¶
- Recommends recognizing sustained behavioural change as a de-listing criterion and establishing a structured civil society consultation mechanism with a dedicated EEAS contact point.¶¶
- Calls for a complementary role for Parliament in proposing cases and annual reports on sanctions decisions, and for thorough consideration of Parliament's listing recommendations.¶
- Calls for explicit guidance on prohibiting technical and material support, including ICT and cyber tools, and for reviewing derogation clauses to prevent circumvention.¶¶
Who is affected
- Individuals and entities listed under the EUGHRSR, including their family members, face asset freezes and travel bans.¶¶
- EU Member States must ensure full compliance with sanctions and harmonized implementation.¶¶
- Civil society organizations would gain a structured mechanism for input and a dedicated EEAS contact point.¶
- The European External Action Service (EEAS) would need to define pathways for using frozen asset interest and enhance capacity.¶
Figures and deadlines
Legal basis: Articles 2, 3(5), 21, 23, 29 and 31(2) TEU and Article 215 TFEU¶¶