Another Azarov judgment from EU court on proper approach to Ukraine misappropriation sanctions

The General Court has annulled the 2018 acts listing the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Yanovych Azarov on the EU’s Ukraine misappropriation sanctions. Case T-286/18 (11 September 2019). Mr Azarov’s 2015 listing was annulled by EU Court of Justice (C-530/17, see post), but not his 2016 (T-190/16, see post) or 2017 (T-215/15, see post) re-listings.

The Court found that the EU Council’s statement of reasons did not include any information about or verification of whether the Ukrainian judicial authorities had respected his rights of the defence, but had relied only on a letter from Ukrainian authorities. The Court applied Stavytskyi v Council (T-290/17) and held that since Mr Azarov had been subject to sanctions for a number of years as a result of an investigation which is still in its preliminary stages, the Council “is required to examine in more depth the question of the possible violation of the fundamental rights of that person”.