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In its report published on Thursday, the parliamentary oversight committee said the Federal Council appropriately adopted the EU’s economic sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. Given the necessary prior weighing of interests and the necessary adjustment of the sanctions to Swiss law, the GPK-S is of the opinion that a faster takeover would not have been possible.
Overall, the federal government has improved the data base for the application of economic sanctions in recent years, the committee wrote. Goods traffic is increasingly controlled by both the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) and the Federal Office for Customs and Border Protection (BAZG).
“Several cantons were not aware of their role in the initial phase”
However, the Commission is more critical of the way in which the implementation of Russian sanctions was supervised and monitored in this specific case. According to the GPK-S, the federal authorities have clarified the cantons’ ambiguities about the implementation of the Russian sanctions too late. “Several cantons were not aware of their role in the initial phase.” Certain legal provisions were unclear to them before the federal government clarified them.
The Commission also regrets that the assets of the natural and legal persons affected by the sanctions could not be monitored more closely in the first months after the sanctions were imposed due to Seco’s insufficient resources. According to the GPK-S report, before the crisis, only 0.7 full-time equivalents were planned for the implementation of the measures against Russia/Ukraine.
The relationship between lawyers’ reporting obligations and criminal law provisions regarding their professional secrecy remains unclear. The GPK-S therefore invites the Federal Council to carry out the necessary legal clarifications and, if necessary, clarifications.
to have the crisis concept checked
The GPK-S also requests the Federal Council to review the suitability of the federal crisis concept and thereby ensure that Seco can respond more flexibly in times of crisis. In the opinion of the GPK-S, the Seco also needs a better overview of changes in the land register in connection with sanctioned persons in order to be able to intervene more in the event of violations of the sanctions.
Because the federal government is adopting the list of persons sanctioned by the EU unchanged, the GPK-S believes that measures to guarantee the rule of law should also be examined. The Federal Council should therefore investigate how the factual justification and legality of this list can be improved.
The Monitoring Committee also calls on the Federal Council to examine the legal basis for the enforcement of international sanctions with a view to a clearer definition of the role of the cantons. The Commission also sees the need for an investigation into the role of the cantonal land registry supervisory authorities in the implementation of economic sanctions.
The Federal Council wants more controls
The Federal Council must comment on the findings and recommendations by mid-February. After critical voices, he has already announced that he will increase the frequency of checks in the future to improve the effectiveness of the sanctions.
After Russia militarily attacked Ukraine, the Federal Council decided to adopt the EU’s sanctions against Russia at the end of February 2022, thereby increasing their impact. The legal basis is the embargo law. This stipulates that the federal government can take coercive measures to enforce sanctions decided by the UN, the OSCE or the EU.
Because the legal terminology, conditions and responsibilities in Switzerland are different than in the EU, EU decisions cannot be adopted unchanged, but must be analyzed and adapted to the Swiss legal system. Furthermore, Switzerland must take into account both the neutrality law and its neutrality policy.
(SDA)
Source:Blick
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