Brussels, 10 September 2024
Today, Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner Mairead McGuinness are chairing a roundtable with senior executives from key EU companies trading in Common High Priority (CHP) items. These include companies in the semiconductors, aerospace, telecommunications and industrial automation and engineering sectors. Several banks, logistics providers and sector associations are also attending the meeting.
Participants are discussing how EU industry, in close cooperation with governments and EU institutions, can engage in a trust-based partnership to tackle the circumvention of EU sanctions on sensitive goods. They are also sharing perspectives on compliance risks, best practices against circumvention, the protection of EU know-how and intellectual property from misuse abroad, and ways to tackle smuggler networks and illicit actors.
The EU has adopted 14 packages of sanctions in response to Russia’s illegal, unprovoked, and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine. One of the key objectives of these measures is to block Russia’s access to the goods and technology that it needs to pursue its war and further develop its military capabilities.
The fight against the circumvention of EU sanctions is a priority. To this end, the Commission works closely with Member States and the industry, and conducts diplomatic outreach to third countries that are used as platforms for sanctions circumvention.
The CHP list, prepared by the Commission together with authorities in the US, UK and Japan, includes components repeatedly recovered from the battlefield in Ukraine as well as items critical for the development, production or use of such components. The CHP list is a central element of efforts to combat circumvention.
Source – EU Commission