Changes from plenary report to adopted text

6. Reiterates that it is important for the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act to be consistent with and complement the EU’s country-specific and horizontal restrictive measures, sectoral measures and arms embargos, as well as existing international sanctions frameworks;

7. Encourages the Council to seek to align EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act listings with the sanctions lists of like-minded partners, in particular those in the G7, and the UN Security Council, where politically and legally feasible, in order to enhance global legitimacy and effectiveness;

8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to enhance synergies between the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act and international accountability mechanisms, such as the UN, the International Criminal Court and regional human rights courts, to improve the effectiveness of EU actions against serious human rights violations;

9. Underlines that it is important for EU candidate countries and potential candidate countries to align with the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act, in line with their broader alignment with the EU’s common foreign and security policy;

10. Fully supports the imposition of targeted anti-corruption sanctions within the EU framework, which has been a long-standing priority of Parliament, whether through its inclusion in the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act or under a different regime; recommends extending the regime’s scope to cover large-scale corruption cases and abuse of state procurement contracts that directly sustain authoritarian regimes, thereby linking human rights abuses with kleptocratic practices; stresses, furthermore, that anti-corruption sanctions should take into account the broader systemic context and be closely linked with comprehensive strategies towards the respective actors; welcomes the fact that the Commission put forward a proposal for an anti-corruption sanctions regime; finds it regrettable that the file has been blocked at the Council by some Member States;

11. Stresses that the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act should also address human rights violations enabled through digital surveillance, spyware exports and other technologies used for repression, and deliberate acts of environmental destruction with a clear intent to harm the civilian population; calls for explicit listings of individuals involved in such abuses;

12. Welcomes the recent use of the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act against actors responsible for the transnational repression of dissidents and human rights defenders, and calls for more listings to reflect this growing global trend and to systematically assess acts of transnational repression, including digital surveillance, harassment of exiles, and cross-border intimidation, disinformation and legal abuse; calls on the Council to adopt a working definition of transnational repression to ensure consistent sanctioning, including of non-state proxies such as private security companies and diaspora organisations; calls for the EU to step up the application of sanctions against individuals and entities credibly documented as responsible for acts of transnational repression against human rights defenders, including harassment of relatives, digital attacks and intimidation abroad;

13. Urges the Member States to refrain from bilateral political or diplomatic actions that undermine their commitment to international criminal justice mechanisms, including the Rome Statute, and the defence of human rights, or that contradict the EU’s unified stance on sanctions; instructs the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, if this recommendation is not taken into account, to call on the Member States concerned to align their actions and maintain EU unity; invites the Member States to enhance coordination and make use of their own instruments, such as universal jurisdiction and national sanctions, provided that these are applied in a coordinated manner in support of the common EU objectives, so as to bring about significant change and help achieve the objectives of EU sanctions;

14. Condemns the fact that some EU Member States have failed to comply with EU sanctions by allowing sanctioned individuals to enter EU territory, thereby harming the credibility and effectiveness of sanctions; urges all EU Member States to fully and unconditionally comply with EU sanctions; calls on the Commission, as the guardian of the Treaties, to ensure that EU Member States comply with the sanctions and to rigorously and without discrimination address any instances of non-compliance by Member States;

15. Stresses that EU restrictive measures can only be fully effective if they are interpreted, enforced and implemented consistently, swiftly and uniformly by all Member States; notes the differences between Member States in terms of legal frameworks, administrative structures and operational resources for the implementation of sanctions; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary steps to ensure a more harmonised and coordinated application, including by strengthening the capacity for asset freezes, improving the exchange of information and developing common EU-level monitoring and enforcement mechanisms;

16. Urges the EEAS to define legal pathways for mobilising the interest accrued from the frozen assets of individuals sanctioned under the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act so that it can be used to benefit the victims of the serious human rights violations for which the sanctioned individuals are responsible; encourages the EU, furthermore, to explore the possibility of establishing a specific procedure regarding ill-gotten gains;

17. Strongly welcomes the Council’s adoption of thematic sanctions packages under the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act; urges the Council to systematically and proactively adopt similar targeted measures to address other specific and grave human rights violations, including torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and the repression of civil society and human rights defenders;

18. Reiterates its call for the Council to gradually switch to qualified majority voting for decisions in areas of the common foreign and security policy that do not have military or defence implications, such as sanctions;

Strengthening the fight against impunity

19. Calls for the EU sanctions regime to be consistent with and complement international criminal law, international humanitarian law, and EU policies related to the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, with the aim of strengthening the fight against impunity worldwide;

20. Urges the EU to strategically align EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act listings with national and international criminal justice efforts, including by listing individuals indicted by international courts, such as the International Criminal Court, and perpetrators of core international crimes and other actors who frustrate such accountability processes;

21. Underlines that sanctions should also serve the purpose of ensuring that perpetrators of serious human rights violations and corruption do not remain anonymous, thereby exposing those responsible;

22. Urges the Council to ensure that all regions of the world are treated with equal scrutiny and commitment, and to correct current geographical and thematic imbalances in listings under the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act by extending listings beyond the current geographical concentration to all persons and entities responsible for serious human rights violations, irrespective of their country of origin;

23. Encourages the Council to pay particular attention to violations such as sexual and gender-based violence, discriminatory policies, and the persecution of women leaders, journalists and activists, so that these categories are adequately reflected in future listings;

24. Notes that, so far, a significant proportion of individuals sanctioned under the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act were involved in the state’s repressive apparatus, but did not make decisions, while only a minority of those listed hold political or military leadership positions; urges the Council to extend designations beyond low-level designations to include political and military leaders, sanctioning those responsible for making decisions that led to grave human rights violations;

25. Calls for greater and more effective communication on imposed sanctions to reiterate the EU’s global stand on human rights and the fight against impunity, as in some cases sanctioned individuals are being portrayed as heroes by national propaganda and are even rewarded by repressive regimes; notes that the deterrent element of the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act works most effectively against individuals and entities with property in, or means to travel to, the EU;

26. Condemns any countersanctions imposed on the EU or its institutions, Member States, bodies or citizens solely for promoting and upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law through the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act;

Transparency, accountability and the role of civil society

27. Recommends enhanced transparency and clear guidelines in the sanctions process, while upholding the rights of listed individuals to effective judicial review;

28. Recommends that sustained, demonstrable, real and lasting behavioural change by listed individuals and entities, such as ongoing cooperation with international justice mechanisms, be formally recognised as a de-listing criterion to incentivise accountability and compliance;

29. Proposes the establishment of a structured and transparent consultation mechanism for civil society reporting and engagement in the sanctions process, with protective measures for whistleblowers, including the establishment of a dedicated EEAS contact point; recommends the introduction of a budgetary window to strengthen the EEAS’s capacity to systematically assess, investigate, react to and process information and proposals from civil society;

30. Calls on the Council and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to envision a complementary role for Parliament in collecting and proposing cases of serious human rights violations to be considered under the sanctions regime, and to provide Parliament with annual reports about decisions on sanctions under the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act, including in the circumvention of sanctions; calls for the listings recommendations contained in Parliament’s resolutions to be thoroughly considered by the Council;

Preventing circumvention and strengthening enforcement tools

31. Calls for the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act to be reviewed to prevent sanction circumvention by issuing explicit and updated guidance on the prohibition on providing economic resources and technical and material support to listed individuals and entities, clarifying that the prohibition on providing technical and material support includes non-financial assistance such as ICT infrastructure, software, legal facilitation and cyber tools used for repression; emphasises the need to strengthen the EU’s sanctions regime by broadening and diversifying the use of secondary sanctions with a view to targeting government officials, entities, businesses and individuals involved in facilitating breaches or the circumvention of sanctions, which would enable authoritarian regimes to continue their grave human rights violations;

32. Calls on the Commission to enhance cooperation with the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority and national financial intelligence units in order to systematically identify whether opaque financial products, crypto-assets and offshore structures are being used to evade sanctions;

33. Encourages the cross-listing of entities under both the EUGHRSR – EU Magnitsky Act and geographical sanctions regimes where appropriate;

34. Calls on the Council to review derogation clauses to ensure that contracts concluded before a person is listed do not benefit their family members or associates, or any entities controlled by the sanctioned person;

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35. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.