Committee discusses future UK-EU collaboration on sanctions with experts
The House of Lords EU Security and Justice Sub-Committee hears from experts on UK sanctions policy post-Brexit. As highlighted in the Lords EU External Affairs Committee report Brexit: sanctions policy, published in December 2017, when an EU Member State, the UK played a leading role in developing the EU’s sanctions policy and the listings for those regimes.
Following its departure from the Union in January this year, the UK announced on 6 July the commencement of its own global human rights sanctions regime, imposing asset freezes and travel bans on a range of targets accused by the Government of human rights abuses. On 29 September the UK followed these measures with sanctions in coordination with Canada, against eight members of the Belarus regime, including President Lukashenko.
Meeting details
Taking up the remit on sanctions from the former External Affairs Sub-Committee, the Security and Justice Sub-Committee will take evidence from three of the witnesses to its predecessor’s 2017 inquiry into Brexit and UK sanctions policy. It will ask whether the UK can and should continue to collaborate with the EU on sanctions policy and the consequences for the effectiveness of their respective regimes if it does not do so.
The Committee will also take evidence on the UK’s new global sanctions policy, on how it will operate alongside that of the EU and what benefits and challenges that new policy may bring to the UK agencies, businesses and individuals affected by it.
Topics likely to be covered across both sessions include:
- What role did the UK play in EU sanctions policy when a Member State, and how influential was that role?
- How will the UK’s departure from the EU affect future EU sanctions policy?
- If the UK wishes to continue cooperation with the EU in sanctions policy, how could it do this?
- Can the UK retain an influential role in EU decision-making on sanctions?
- Will the EU follow the lead of the US and UK and develop a sanctions policy that focuses on alleged human rights abuses?
- Will the respective sanctions policies of the UK and EU diverge in the future and what could be the consequences of this?
- How effective could the new UK global sanctions policy be?
Further information