Joint Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EU) No 36/2012 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Syria

Council Regulation (EU) No 36/2012 gave effect to Council Decision 2011/782/CFSP, which was repealed and replaced by Council Decision 2012/739/CFSP. On 1 June 2013 Decision 2012/739/CFSP expired and was succeeded by Decision 2013/255/CFSP which applies until 1 June 2014.

It is necessary to introduce an exemption under the freezing of assets to allow the release of funds or economic resources of Syrian State-owned entities or the Central Bank of Syria to make payments on behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for activities related to the OPCW verification mission and the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, including the OPCW special Trust Fund for the financial resources needed for the activities related to the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons outside of the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Further action by the Union is needed in order to implement these measures. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Europan Commission therefore propose to amend Regulation (EU) No 36/2012 accordingly.

EUR-Lex: JOIN(2014)003: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=JOIN:2014:003:FIN

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