S.I. No. 522 of 2007

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (IRAN) (FINANCIAL SANCTIONS) REGULATIONS 2007

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

�Iris Oifigi�il� of 24th July, 2007.

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. 423/2007 of 19 April 2007 ¹ , hereby make the following regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Iran) (Financial Sanctions) Regulations 2007.

2. (1) In these Regulations �Council Regulation� means Council Regulation (EC) No. 423/2007 of 19 April 20071, as amended by-

(a) Commission Regulation (EC) No. 441/2007 of 20 April 2007 ² , and

(b) Council Regulation (EC) No. 618/2007 of 5 June 2007 ³ ,

and as implemented by Council Decision 2007/242/EC of 23 April 2007 ⁴ .

(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-

(a) the providing or making available of financing or financial assistance prohibited,

(b) the provision of investment or making available of funds or economic resources prohibited,

(c) funds or economic resources frozen,

(d) the participation in activities to circumvent paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) prohibited,

by virtue of the Council Regulation commits an offence.

4. Notwithstanding Regulation 3, a person who has received a prior authorisation under Article 3 or an authorisation under Article 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 of the Council Regulation may, subject to compliance with the terms and conditions thereof, do such of the things referred to in Regulation 3 as are so authorised.

5. The Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland 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-

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding �5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding �500,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or both.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

12 July 2007

BRIAN COWEN

Minister for Finance

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 Iran as outlined in Council Regulation (EC) No. 423/2007 of 19 April 2007, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 441/2007 of 20 April 2007 and Council Regulation (EC) No. 618/2007 of 5 June 2007 and implementing Council Decision 2007/242/EC of 23 April 2007. The sanctions include a prohibition on financial assistance related to the import or export of goods and technology which could contribute to Iran�s enrichment-related, reprocessing, or heavy water-related activities, to the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems, or to the supply of conventional weapons to Iran, a ban on the provision of investment related to such goods, a ban on procurement of relevant goods and technology from Iran and the freezing of funds and economic resources of persons and entities engaged in or providing support for such activities.

These Regulations also provide that the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland may issue instructions for the purposes of giving full effect to the financial sanctions and provide for penalties for failure to comply with those instructions.

1 O.J. No. L103, 20.4.2007, p.1.

2 O.J. No. L104, 21.4.2007, p.28.

3 O.J. No. L143, 6.6.2007, p.1.

4 O.J. No. L106, 24.4.2007, p.51.