Imagine having your savings frozen and totally unavailable for years simply because a counterparty of your bank or broker was sanctioned. This harsh reality now affects millions of people and businesses due to a flaw in EU Council Regulation No. 269/2014.

This Regulation, adopted over a decade ago, was intended to target certain individuals and entities (currently around 2,300). However, according to Article 2.1 of Regulation (EU) No. 269/2014, not only resources belonging to sanctioned persons are subject to freezing, but also those held by them. This includes nominee accounts opened in the name of sanctioned persons—accounts that hold assets which, by their nature, do not belong to the account holder. As a result, more than 3,500,000 individuals and entities, not included in the sanctions list, have been swept into the sanctions, having their assets unjustly frozen.

The European Union was founded on principles of justice and the protection of human rights. However, the current wording of Regulation No. 269/2014 violates these principles, infringing on property rights and causing harm to persons unconnected to sanctioned activities.

We urge the European Commission to review its approach to sanctions enforcement and stop the widespread violation of the rights of innocent persons. Join us and support a call for fair and reasonable corrections to the sanctions framework!

Our demands:

Exclude nominee accounts from the sanctions regime — allow relevant financial institutions to verify and confirm that transactions do not involve sanctioned persons as part of their regular compliance procedures.

This measure aligns with standard business practices, and millions of transactions are securely processed daily under such a framework.