COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No 153/2014
of 17 February 2014
amending Regulation (EC) No 314/2004 concerning certain restrictive measures in respect of Zimbabwe and repealing Regulation (EU) No 298/2013
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 215 thereof,
Having regard to the joint proposal of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and of the European Commission,
Whereas:
(1)
Council Regulation (EC) No 314/2004 (1) implements several measures provided for by Council Decision 2011/101/CFSP (2), including the freezing of funds and economic resources of certain natural or legal persons, entities and bodies.
(2)
The suspension of the travel restrictions and asset freeze measures applying to the majority of the individuals and entities set out in Annex I to Decision 2011/101/CFSP should be renewed, and further extended to cover eight more individuals.
(3)
Some of those measures fall within the scope of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and regulatory action at the level of the Union is therefore necessary in order to implement them, in particular with a view to ensuring their uniform application by economic operators in all Member States.
(4)
An updated Annex should be added to Regulation (EC) No 314/2004 to include eight more individuals who are to benefit from the suspension of the prohibitions laid down in Article 6(1) and (2) thereof, in addition to the 81 persons and eight entities, who already benefit from the suspension of the application of Article 6 provided for in Council Regulation (EU) No 298/2013 (3).
(5)
Regulation (EC) No 314/2004 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(6)
The extension of the suspension provided for in Regulation (EU) No 298/2013 is due to expire on 20 February 2014 and that extension is to be provided for in this Regulation. In the interests of legal clarity, therefore, Regulation (EU) No 298/2013 should be repealed.
(7)
In order to ensure that the measures provided for in this Regulation are effective, this Regulation must enter into force on the day of its publication,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Regulation (EC) No 314/2004 is amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 6, the following paragraph is added:
‘4. The measures in paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be suspended in so far as they concern persons and entities listed in Annex IV.’;
(2)
the Annex to this Regulation is added as Annex IV.
Article 2
Regulation (EU) No 298/2013 is repealed.
Article 3
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 17 February 2014.