K42 - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of LawReturn

The contribution focuses on arms sanctions imposed by the European Union. It introduces EU arms embargoes in a context of current sanctions practice. It explains differences between UN and EU arms sanctions and analyses their causes and consequences. It offers a comparison on several levels, mentions differences in institutional and legal background, in the contents, scope and temporal link. It considers the possibilities of targeting of arms sanctions, and studies how are arms sanctions combined with other restrictive measures (assets freezing and travel bans). It explains different ways of implementation of UN arms embargoes in EU practice. It devotes intensive attention to EU autonomous arms sanctions, points to wider possibilities of EU by imposing of sanctions.

Even though the right to lodge a petition with the European Parliament has not been codified at primary law level until the Treaty of Maastricht and its significance has been highlighed by its incorporation in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, its origins go back to the 1950s. Out of twenty standing committees of the European Parliament, the Petitions Committee is the only one having a direct contact with EU citizens. In a future, this committee will hold hearings with successful representatives of European Citizens Initiatives. The aim of this article is to identify fields in which EU citizens complain with the European Parliament most frequently. Hence, these areas constitute issues in which EU law is not being properly applied by the national bodies of the Member States.