STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

S.I. No. 426 of 2006

REGULATIONS

entitled

European Communities (Belarus) (Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2006

I, Brian Cowen, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), and for the purpose of giving further effect to Council Regulation (EC) No. 765/2006 of 18 May 2006¹ , hereby make the following regulations:

1.   These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Belarus) (Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2006.

2.   (1)   In these Regulations -

-�Central Bank-� means Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland;

-�Council Regulation-� means Council Regulation (EC) No. 765/2006 of 18 May 2006;

(2)  A word or expression which is used in these Regulations has, unless the context otherwise requires, the same meaning that it has in the Council Regulation.

3.   Subject to Regulation 4, a person who fails to comply with the requirements of the Council Regulation as regards funds or economic resources which are frozen by virtue of the Council Regulation commits an offence.

4.   Notwithstanding Regulation 3, a person may make a financial transfer to which these Regulations apply where that person has received in respect of such transfer -

(a)    an authorisation pursuant to Article 3(1) of the Council Regulation, or

(b)    a specific authorisation pursuant to Article 3(2) of the Council Regulation.

5.   The Central Bank may, for the purposes of the administration and enforcement of the provisions of these Regulations, give such directions or issue such instructions to a person as it sees fit.

6.   A person who fails to comply with a direction or an instruction issued under Regulation 5 commits an offence.

7.   Where an offence under these Regulations is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of or to have been attributable to the neglect on the part of any person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate, commits an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she committed the first mentioned offence.

8.   A person guilty of an offence under these Regulations is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Statutory Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

These Regulations provide for penalties for breach of financial sanctions against President Lukashenko, the Belarusian leadership and officials responsible for the violation of international electoral standards and international human rights, as well as for the crackdown on civil society and democratic oppression and which are listed in Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No. 765/2006 of 18 May 2006.

¹ OJ L134, 20.5.2006, p.1.