Council Regulation (EU) 2023/331 of 14 February 2023 amending certain Council regulations concerning restrictive measures in order to insert provisions on a humanitarian exemption
Council Regulation (EC) No 1210/2003 is amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 4, the following paragraph is added:
‘4. Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.’
;
(2)
Article 7 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 7
1. The participation, knowingly and intentionally, in activities, the object or effect of which is, directly or indirectly, to circumvent Article 4(1) to (3) or to promote the transactions referred to in Articles 2 and 3, shall be prohibited.
2. Any information that the provisions of this Regulation are being, or have been, circumvented shall be notified to the competent authorities of the Member States, as listed in Annex V, and, directly or through these competent authorities, to the Commission.’.
In Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC) No 305/2006, the following paragraph is added:
‘4. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.’.
In Council Regulation (EU) No 356/2010, Article 4 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 4
1. Article 2(1) and (2) shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.
2. The exemption set out in paragraph 1 shall not give rise to liability of any kind on the part of the natural or legal persons, entities or bodies which made funds or economic resources available, where they did not know, and had no reasonable cause to suspect, that their actions would not be covered by this exemption.’.
Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014 is amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 5, the following paragraph is added:
‘4. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.’
;
(2)
Article 12 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 12
It shall be prohibited to participate, knowingly and intentionally, in activities the object or effect of which is to circumvent the measures referred to in Articles 2, 5(1) and 5(2).’.
Council Regulation (EU) No 1352/2014 is amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 2, the following paragraph is added:
‘3. Paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental Organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.’
;
(2)
Article 3a is replaced by the following:
‘Article 3a
1. By way of derogation from Articles 1a and 2, the competent authorities of the Member States may, under such conditions as they deem appropriate, and provided that the Sanctions Committee has determined on a case-by-case basis that a derogation is necessary to facilitate the work of the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations in Yemen or for any other purpose consistent with the objectives of UNSCR 2140 (2014) and UNSCR 2216 (2015), authorise:
(a)
the provision of technical assistance, financing or financial assistance related to the activities described in Article 1a;
(b)
the release of certain frozen funds or economic resources, or the making available of certain funds or economic resources.
2. Paragraph 1(b) is without prejudice to Article 2(3).’
;
(3)
Article 10 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 10
It shall be prohibited to participate, knowingly and intentionally, in activities where the object or effect is to circumvent the measures referred to in Article 2(1) and 2(2).’.
Article 5 of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2309 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 5
Article 3(1) and (2) shall not apply to the making available of funds or economic resources necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance or to support other activities that support basic human needs where such assistance and other activities are carried out by:
(a)
the United Nations, including its programmes, funds and other entities and bodies, as well as its specialised agencies and related organisations;
(b)
international organisations;
(c)
humanitarian organisations having observer status with the United Nations General Assembly and members of those humanitarian organisations;
(d)
bilaterally or multilaterally funded non-governmental organisations participating in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plans, Refugee Response Plans, other United Nations appeals or humanitarian clusters coordinated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA);
(e)
the employees, grantees, subsidiaries, or implementing partners of the entities mentioned in points (a) to (d) while and to the extent that they are acting in those capacities; or
(f)
appropriate other actors as determined by the Sanctions Committee.’.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
