The European Parliament last week overwhelmingly adopted three resolutions urging strong EU sanctions against those in Iran, Niger and Georgia involved in human rights abuses. The resolutions call on the bloc to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization and to sanction the country’s supreme leader, president and prosecutor-general. They also said EU member states should implement sanctions against the leaders of a July military coup in Niger, and asked the European Council to sanction those responsible for “violations of Georgian sovereignty” and human rights stemming from Russia's illegal occupation of certain regions of Georgia.
The European Parliament voted last week to reject a proposed sustainable pesticides regulation that could set new limits on imported agricultural goods and food products, along with other pesticide-related bans (see 2310260029). Parliament said 299 members voted against the proposal, 207 supported it and 121 abstained. “With this vote, Parliament has effectively rejected the Commission proposal and closed its first reading,” the legislative body said in a news release. It added that the European Council must still decide “on its own position on the proposal to determine whether it is definitively rejected or returns to Parliament for a second reading.”
The European Parliament and the European Council last week reached an agreement on a new set of rules to restrict waste exports, the parliament announced. The agreement, which still needs to be formally approved, seeks to block exports of certain non-hazardous wastes and mixtures to countries outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development unless those nations meet “strict” environmental conditions and agree to treat the waste “in an environmentally sound manner,” the parliament said in a news release.
The U.K.'s Department for International Trade on Nov. 21 updated its strategic export controls guidance. The guidance includes information on the country's export control lists, how its export controls are applied and how exporters can apply for a license, penalties and fines.
The U.K. High Court in a decision released Nov. 15 said Senegalese oil trading company Der Mond Oil and Gas couldn't rely on sanctions as a reason for not paying Russian company Litasco SA for money due under an oil sale contract.
The U.K. this week amended Russia- and Iran-related sanctions entries. The changes were to identifying information for Irina Anatolievna Kostenko under its Russia sanctions regime and to the Ya Mahdi Industries Group under Iran.
European countries not in the EU aligned with two recent sanctions moves from the European Council concerning the situations in Myanmar and Guinea, the council announced.
Members of the European Parliament are pushing member states to more strictly enforce sanctions against Russia, saying “loopholes” are still allowing Russia to reap revenue from its oil sales and import export-controlled electronics. In a resolution adopted by the parliament last week, the body called for a lower price cap on Russian oil and petroleum products and a new mechanism to oversee member states’ sanctions enforcement.
The U.K. and Florida signed the seventh UK-U.S. state-level Memorandum of Understanding on Nov. 14, the Department for International Trade announced. U.K. Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the deal, which is "targeted at high-potential sectors such as space and fintech and designed to boost exports and investment between the UK and Florida." Florida joins Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington as the U.S. states that have an MOU with the U.K.
The European Commission is proposing an update to its intermodal freight regulations that it hopes will make EU freight movement more efficient, competitive and climate-friendly. The proposal, released last week, would update the EU’s current Combined Transport Directive -- an “outdated” freight transportation regulation last amended in 1992 -- by incentivizing the use of “intermodal operations that contribute the most to making freight transport more sustainable,” the commission said.