The 10th package of EU sanctions was adopted on February 25, 2023 by the EU Council Regulation 2023/426.
As part of the 10th package, the EU Council allowed, by the decision of the competent authority of the EU member state, the partial unfreezing of frozen funds and economic resources of the National Settlement Depository (the “NSD”).
NSD was included in the list of sanctioned persons under the 6th package of sanctions in June 2022.
On December 16, 2022, the Minister of Finance of Luxembourg signed a general license enabling the release part of frozen funds until January 7, 2023.
On December 22, 2022, Belgium issued permission to unlock NSD's assets and withdraw them to Euroclear until January 7, 2023.
According to the February EU Council Decision frozen funds of NSD can be released by the decision of the competent authority of the EU member state under the following terms:
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these funds are necessary for the disposal and transfer of securities of a company incorporated in the EU, currently or previously controlled by VTB;
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the disposal and transfer of securities is completed by July 24, 2023;
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the disposal and transfer of securities are based on transactions, contracts and other agreements concluded with NSD before June 3, 2022.
Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32023R0426&from=EN
Nadmitov, Ivanov & Partners Law Firm advises on sanctions and on dealing with the competent authorities in Belgium and Luxembourg in relation to obtaining authorisation from the competent authority to unblock securities at Euroclear and ClearStream.
Tel.: +7 (495) 649-87-12