The EU-level contact point for humanitarian aid in environments subject to EU sanctions is one of the tools that the Commission has deployed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to support and facilitate the activities of humanitarian operators engaged in the provision of humanitarian aid in environments subject to EU sanctions.
It is intended to assist those involved in the provision of humanitarian aid – donors, NGOs, banks and others – by providing information and preliminary guidance in relation to humanitarian derogations under EU sanctions regimes.
EU Member States are responsible for the implementation of EU sanctions, which means that it is within the remit of the competent authorities of the Member States to assess the requests and grant derogations to their humanitarian operators. To facilitate their task, the EU-level contact point assists humanitarian operators in identifying the national authority responsible for assessing their request and, when possible, provide preliminary replies to queries relating to derogation requests.
To that end, humanitarian operators are invited to direct their queries to ec-sanctions-humanitarian-contact-point@ec.europa.eu by indicating
- basic information describing the humanitarian activity or operation subject to the query
- the sanctioned environment or the applicable sanctions regime, which is in their view subject to their activity and/or query
- the competent authority or authorities they believe may be responsible for handling their request and the reason why they have identified that authority or authorities
For further assistance on the provision of humanitarian aid to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in compliance with EU sanctions, please consult the guidance note on the provision of humanitarian aid to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in certain environments subject to EU restrictive measures.