Mairead McGuinness, the financial services commissioner, said officials were open to introducing an EU version of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), the powerful US Treasury agency that spearheads its sanctions. The EU could alternatively give the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (Amla) the power to oversee sanctions by amending legislation currently being scrapped by the European Parliament and member states, he said. “Anything would help member states to implement [sanctions], and where we see European supervision and coordination. . . it would be a plus,” McGuinness, the EU’s top sanctions policy official, said in an interview. “The idea of ​​having a general view of sanctions and their application is something I would support.” EU sanctions policy has been hampered by uneven enforcement. While the European Commission proposes any measures, which come into force if approved by all EU capitals, their implementation falls to the national authorities of the 27 member states. McGuinness said the EU had made “excellent progress” in drafting sanctions and coordinating them with international partners, and that there had been “strong enforcement across 27 different ways of doing business”. But he said: “In some countries there is a strong infrastructure to implement sanctions and in others there is not.” The Commission has written to several member states asking them to report on the enforcement of EU sanctions related to Russia, he said. MEPs from the centrist group Renew Europe recently tabled amendments to the proposed regulation to set up Amla. These will create a new “central office” responsible for overseeing national authorities that impose targeted economic sanctions, giving the planned EU agency powers such as intelligence gathering and coordination. Including measures taken after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014, the EU has imposed sanctions on 98 entities and 1,158 individuals. It also banned exports of sensitive technology to Russia, including in the oil and gas industry, and banned imports of products such as coal and vodka.

McGuinness said she was considering a number of other changes to strengthen the EU’s sanctions regime. Brussels was considering forcing sanctioned entities to reveal their assets, with criminal penalties if they tried to hide any. It also looked at harmonizing definitions, including what constitutes control of a sanctioned entity, and expanding registries of beneficial ownership of assets. The EU also plans to look at areas where clarification is needed on sanctions or where there are loopholes or loopholes in the system. Brussels is also working with financial institutions to ensure they do not exceed sanctions requirements when they “block” business relationships, McGuinness said. For example, while he noted that it was good that banks wanted to comply with sanctions, it was problematic to catch people who shouldn’t, such as Russians living in Europe who were barred from opening bank accounts. “I think with our guidance and the work we’re doing with both the financial institutions and the member states, these things should clear up in time,” he added. “There may be some problems, but they won’t persist.”