Members of the European Parliament last week called on the bloc to sanction officials in China and Sudan for human rights violations.

The Netherlands' Rotterdam District Court on Jan. 15 sustained the Dutch National Bank's sanctions on an unnamed financial services provider, according to an unofficial translation. The court held that the bank "rightly" found that from July 2015 to March 2018, the financial services provider "systematically failed to comply with several core obligations" by "hardly conducting any customer due diligence" and failing to carry out any sanctions screening.

The European Council and Parliament struck a provisional deal on parts of its anti-money laundering package, which will "for the first time" harmonize AML rules throughout the EU and close loopholes used by criminals to evade sanctions and finance terrorism, the council said this week.

The European Council added one person to the EU Terrorist List for his role in leading the Oct. 7 attack against Israel, the council announced. Yahia Sinouar, the political leader of Hamas, is now subject to an asset freeze, and EU operators are no longer allowed to make economic resources available to him.

The European Council last week established a new sanctions regime to target parties undermining democracy in Guatemala following the nation's 2023 elections. The regime will allow the EU to impose restrictions on people and entities "responsible for actions that undermine democracy, the rule of law and a peaceful transfer of power in Guatemala," the council said. Examples of sanctionable activity include intimidating public officials and "financial misconduct concerning public funds and the unauthorised export of capital."

The U.K. on Jan. 15 corrected one entry under its Russia sanctions regime, one under its Belarus sanctions regime and two entries its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regime.

The European Commission is urging anyone with information on Russia- or Belarus-related sanctions evasion to submit tips under its online EU sanctions whistleblower tool (see 2203080030). The online tool allows whistleblowers to submit reports anonymously, the bloc said in a Jan. 14 post on the social media platform X.

The European Commission on Jan. 11 set duties on bulb flats from Turkey and China, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. Bulb flats are steel products used to fortify ship hulls in passenger cruise ships and military vessels. The AD rate will be 23% for imports from China and 13.6% for imports from Turkey.

The U.K. amended various entries under its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida and North Korea sanctions regimes in a pair of Jan. 8 notices.

The U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation on Jan. 9 published its "Asset Reporting Privacy Policy," outlining how the agency will use personal data of designated parties under the Russia sanctions regime. The agency collects the sanctioned parties' names, email addresses, residential addresses and financial information.