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DRAFT OPINION (COM(2022)0684 – C90401/2022 – 2022/0398(COD))

On the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Definition of criminal offences and penalties for the violation of Union restrictive measures

BUDG-PA-746791

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Vlad Gheorghe

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The Committee on Budgets draft opinion responds to a proposed directive on criminal offences and penalties for violating EU restrictive measures. It asks the lead committee to add the EPPO's role, lower penalty thresholds, raise corporate fines, and use confiscated assets for Ukraine's reconstruction and victims. It proposes that asset recovery offices report to the EPPO, that offences involving designated persons be referred to the EPPO, and that confiscated funds linked to Russian aggression become external assigned revenue for Ukraine.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgets calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to take into account its amendments, which strengthen the EPPO's role, lower penalty thresholds, raise corporate fines, and direct confiscated assets to Ukraine's reconstruction and victims.

Key points

  1. The EPPO should play a central role in investigating sanction circumvention because such crimes involve the EU's financial interests.
  2. Assets confiscated from sanction circumvention against Russia should fund reconstruction of Ukraine's infrastructure and compensate the victim population.
  3. Fines for sanction circumvention should be proportionate to the funds or economic resources involved, and national authorities should cooperate more, including through a joint sanction enforcement structure.
  4. The definition of 'designated person, entity or body' would include dependants of natural persons and cover Union travel restrictions.
  5. The threshold for a maximum penalty of at least one year of imprisonment would be lowered from EUR 100 000 to EUR 50 000.
  6. The threshold for a maximum penalty of at least five years of imprisonment would be lowered from EUR 100 000 to EUR 50 000.
  7. Maximum fines for legal persons would rise from 1 percent to 5 percent of total worldwide turnover for certain offences, and from 5 percent to 10 percent for others.
  8. Funds or economic resources of designated persons involved in offences would be frozen and confiscated, and could be used for public interest or social purposes, focusing on victims.
  9. Net revenues from liquidating confiscated assets linked to Russian aggression would be assigned to the NDICI – Global Europe Eastern Neighbourhood budget line and the common provisioning fund line.
  10. Tracing, freezing and communicating the amount of frozen assets would apply to all EU sanctions regimes.
  11. Asset recovery offices would report to the EPPO, act on its instructions and give it access to information under the EPPO Regulation.
  12. Member States would report to the EPPO the number of criminal proceedings referred to it, the monetary value of frozen and confiscated funds, and the types of national authorities involved.

Who is affected

  • Member States, which must set penalties, freeze and confiscate assets, and cooperate with the EPPO.
  • Legal persons, which would face higher maximum fines based on worldwide turnover.
  • Designated persons, entities and bodies, including their dependants, whose funds may be frozen and confiscated.
  • The EPPO, which would receive referrals, reports and access to information.
  • Victims in Ukraine, who would benefit from confiscated assets and fines.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 50 000, the threshold for a maximum penalty of at least one year of imprisonment.
  • EUR 50 000, the threshold for a maximum penalty of at least five years of imprisonment.
  • 5 percent of total worldwide turnover, the minimum maximum fine for certain offences by legal persons.
  • 10 percent of total worldwide turnover, the minimum maximum fine for other offences by legal persons.