Court gives blow to EU foreign policy

The General Court  of the European Union has decided to annul the freezing of the assets of five Ukrainians, including two former Prime Ministers.

The General Court writes in a press release that the Council, in response to the crisis in Ukraine - which began at the end of 2013 - decided, on 5 March 2014, to freeze the assets and economic resources of the persons identified as responsible for the misappropriation of Ukrainian State funds. Two former Prime Ministers together with three other Ukrainians were, for the period from 6 March 2014 to 5 March 2015, included on the list of persons subject to the freezing of assets on the ground that they were the subject of preliminary investigations in Ukraine relating to offences connected to misappropriation of Ukrainian State funds and their illegal transfer outside Ukraine. The five Ukrainians brought proceedings before the General Court with a view to having their inclusion on the list annulled.

In today´s judgments the General Court upholds the actions brought by the five Ukrainians and annul the freezing of assets imposed on them for the period from 6 March 2014 to 5 March 2015.

The Court finds that the Council identified the five Ukrainians as being responsible for misappropriation of funds solely on the basis of a letter from the Prosecutor General of Ukraine stating that investigations of those persons had made it possible to establish that large amounts of public funds had been misappropriated and unlawfully transferred out of Ukraine. The Court takes the view that that letter provides no deatils concerning the matters specifically alleged against the five Ukrainians of the nature of their responsiblity. In short the Court concludes that a person cannot be treated as being responsible for misappropriation of funds solely on the ground that he is the subject of a preliminary investigation in a third country, without the Council being aware of the matters alleged against that person in that investigation.