The European Court of Justice has declared illegal the sanctions of the Council of the EU against the former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov, as was stated in the judgement of the court of the first instance of December 16 )published on Thursday, December 24).
Azarov was included in the sanctions list on March 4, 2019. The EU General Court has annulled the 2019 acts designating the former Prime Minister of Ukraine (T-286/19, 16 December 2020).
As in previous judgments, the Court ruled that the Council had made an error of assessment by failing to establish that the Ukrainian judicial authorities had respected Mr. Azarov’s rights to the defense and judicial protection. The Court acknowledged that the Council had referred to the Ukrainian judicial decisions on which it relied in the Applicant’s statement of reasons and those decisions had been adopted in a public hearing at which the Applicant was represented. However, the Court said that the Council had failed to consider to what extent those decisions respected the Applicant’s rights, particularly in light of the Applicant’s complaint that one of those decisions could not be appealed.
“It follows that, in deciding to keep the applicant's name on the list, the Council erred in the assessment. In these circumstances, the contested acts must be annulled in so far as they are directed at the applicant, without it being necessary to examine the applicant's request for procedural arrangements,” the ruling judged.
As was reported by "Apostrophe”, in March 2020, the European Union officially annulled another package of sanctions against Azarov and the ex-minister of energy Eduard Stavytsky. Furthermore, on November 16, the Kyiv Court of Appeal overturned its decision to arrest in absentia former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.