Адвокат Бьонди рекомендовал отменить первоначальные решения Совета ЕС по “Мегафону”

The General Advocate of the EU Court, Andrea Biondi, has recommended the annulment of the initial EU Council decisions to impose sanctions on the Russian operator “Megafon,” citing the absence of a substantiated dossier at the time of their adoption, according to a published opinion on Thursday. “Megafon” was included in February 2023 in the list of organizations subject to enhanced EU restrictions on the export of dual-use goods and technologies, as well as products that could contribute to the technological development of the Russian defense sector. In January 2025, the EU General Court dismissed the company’s lawsuit to lift the restrictions, after which “Megafon” appealed the decision to the EU Court. “The initial acts should be annulled,” the advocate’s opinion states. Biondi concluded that the EU Council initially included “Megafon” in the sanctions list without a formed evidentiary dossier, and the General Court made several legal errors by accepting the Council’s reference to the allegedly “well-known fact” that the major Russian telecom operator supports the Russian military-industrial complex. “The absence of any reference to the alleged well-known fact in the initial acts, combined with the lack of an evidentiary dossier at the time of listing, should have led the General Court to conclude that the Council did not actually exercise its assessment powers,” the advocate noted. Biondi’s position suggests that the EU Council’s approach would allow sanctions to be imposed without a documentary basis initially, and only later, including after a company’s court appeal, refer to the existence of an allegedly well-known fact and present supporting materials. “Such a situation would, in practice, allow the Council to make listings without textual grounds and a documentary basis, which it could only refer to at a second stage, in judicial necessity, citing the existence of a well-known fact,” the opinion states. According to the advocate, the EU’s sanctions policy should be protected from accusations of arbitrariness. Biondi also concluded that “Megafon’s” defense rights were violated. He noted that the EU Council, after the initial inclusion of the company in the list, informed it essentially only of the criterion for imposing restrictions, not the specific facts and evidence. As a result, at the time of filing the lawsuit, the only information “Megafon” had was the assertion that the company supports the Russian military-industrial complex. The advocate also pointed out that the operator was the only Russian telecom company included in the relevant sanctions list, despite not being the largest operator. In his view, this casts doubt on the thesis of the allegedly “well-known fact” that a major Russian telecom operator automatically supports the military-industrial complex in a conflict situation. Ultimately, Biondi proposed that the EU Court uphold several key grounds of “Megafon’s” appeal, including errors in evidence assessment and burden of proof, violations of the right to effective judicial protection, and the company’s defense rights. The advocate’s opinion is not binding on the EU Court. The final decision on the appeal will be made by the EU Court later. After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the EU imposed extensive sanctions against Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Russia will withstand the sanctions pressure, which the West began applying to the country several years ago and continues to intensify. The Russian Federation has also stated that the West lacks the courage to admit the failure of anti-Russian sanctions.