The “Oscar” mission has now been launched together with Eurojust and Frontex. On the one hand, the aim is to determine the assets of individuals and companies subject to EU sanctions, as a spokesman for Europol announced on Monday. The cooperation should also prevent the sanctions from being circumvented. By exchanging information with national authorities of EU countries, the European police authority wants to facilitate financial investigations and also provide operational support. Eurojust, on the other hand, promised to improve cooperation between the authorities on legal issues. The border protection authority Frontex wants to track down sanctioned individuals at the EU’s external borders.
Because of the war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU has imposed numerous punitive sanctions against Russia as a state, but also against individuals and Russian companies. For example, their assets in the EU were frozen, and the sanctioned persons are no longer allowed to enter EU countries. A large number of trade restrictions also apply.