EU Russia sanctions: how far can the Council of the European Union’s discretion go when adopting EU restrictive measures and embargoes?
Advocate General Biondi’s new today’s Opinion in MegaFon v Council (C-228/25 P) (https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/document/C/2025/C-0228-25-00000000PV-01-P-01/CONCL/325982-FR-1-html) – a case brought by Campa Avvocati before the Court of Justice, gives a particularly forceful answer: not beyond the limits imposed by the Treaties and the rule of law.
The Opinion is a powerful reminder that restrictive measures of an individual nature must rest on genuine individual assessment: however compelling the wider policy objective may be, the Council must still demonstrate, through specific reasoning and concrete evidence, why the particular entity concerned falls within the applicable listing criterion.
Such Opinion proposes to the Court of Justice of the European Union to re-establish the rule of law in such matter which has somewhat not been applied correctly by the General Court of the European Union at first instance and not only in this specific case.
It will now be for the Court of Justice to determine whether to follow this approach, but the Opinion already marks an important contribution to the evolving case law on EU restrictive measures.
Megafon was represented by the Campa Avvocati team: Avv. Davide Rovetta, Avv. Massimo Moretto, Avv. Massimo Campa, Avv. Marina Pirovano, Avv. Vincenzo Villante and Avv. Barbara Bonafini.