Sanctions cannot be presumed to remain in force indefinitely, the ruling stated<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s highest administrative court has struck down a government decision not to release the frozen assets of Russia\u2019s BCS Bank. The authorities failed to establish a clear procedure for handling such requests and delegated responsibility to an agency with no legal authority to process them, the court, known as the Council of State, concluded.
\nThe bank\u2019s funds were frozen alongside Russia\u2019s sovereign assets as part of EU sanctions imposed following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Kiev\u2019s Western backers froze some $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, with most held at Brussels-based depository Euroclear. BCS Bank\u2019s funds were blocked because they had been placed with Euroclear through Russia\u2019s National Settlement Depository (NSD), which was targeted by the restrictions.<\/p>\n
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Russia\u2019s political system not proof of corporate control \u2013 EU court<\/p>\n
In January 2023, the private Russian lender applied to the Belgian Treasury for the release of the funds. The Treasury rejected the request in July 2024, arguing that BCS had failed to demonstrate the termination of its relationship with the NSD and that transferring the funds to an Armenian bank would make it impossible for Belgian authorities to monitor their eventual use. The decision prompted the bank to file a complaint with the Council of State.
\nLast Friday, the court ruled that Belgium had handled the case improperly. The Ministry of Finance should have handled the request but instead delegated its authority to the Office of the Administrator General of the Treasury, granting it \u201cexcessively broad and unclear\u201d powers, according to the ruling.<\/p>\n
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Russian court orders Euroclear to pay \u20ac200 billion<\/p>\n
According to the court, the ministry created a legal vacuum by using an \u201cexcessively obscure\u201d definition of the delegated powers and giving the agency broad leeway on issues affecting \u201cfundamental rights.\u201d The Council of State found that the ministry\u2019s actions violated the nation\u2019s constitution and struck down the 2024 decision.
\nThe ruling does not automatically free up BCS Bank\u2019s assets, but it allows the lender to seek a review and sets a precedent for other legal entities whose similar requests were refused under the same circumstances.
\nThe court also rejected Belgium\u2019s argument that the bank, which was added to the US sanctions list in 2024 and the EU sanctions list in May 2026, had lost its right to appeal. The Council of State specifically noted that the Belgian government cannot presume that US sanctions will remain in place \u201cindefinitely.\u201d
\nThe exact number of Russian companies affected by the EU asset freeze is unclear, as the Belgian clearing house does not publish lists of its clients, citing EU data privacy laws. Russian authorities have also not made the information public.
\nIn early September, the EU\u2019s top court ruled that the nature of Russia\u2019s political system cannot be used as the sole justification for freezing assets belonging to Russian-linked companies. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) stated that authorities first need \u201can objective and sufficiently solid basis\u201d to prove that a company is controlled by a sanctioned person.
\nThe ruling came in a case involving Lithuania\u2019s 2022 decision to freeze the funds of electricity supplier Inter Rao Lietuva, which is not itself on the EU sanctions list but is controlled by a Russian state-owned power company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sanctions cannot be presumed to remain in force indefinitely, the ruling stated Belgium\u2019s highest administrative court has struck down a government decision not to release the frozen assets of Russia\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t