There are currently EU arms embargos – in the form of UN mandatory, EU supplementary or EU autonomous sanctions –in place against 20 states or non-governmental forces operating within a specific country (see Figure 8). Moreover, arms embargos are in place against two terrorist organisations – al Qaeda and ISIL/Da’esh – and associated entities. Reviewed at regular intervals, the Council of the European Union decides whether EU sanctions should be renewed, amended or lifted. The European Parliament does not have a formal role in the adoption of CFSP sanctions, but it has the right to be informed and has been very vocal in calling for severe sanctions, against Russia in particular. Traditionally, most EU sanctions programmes are geographical in scope, and are therefore applied to individuals and organisations linked to a particular country. However, the EU also has four thematic programmes with an international scope – the most recent of these was adopted in December 2020, and covers a wide range of human rights violations. The remaining three programmes concern terrorism, chemical weapons use, and cyber-attacks. Today, the EU has established over 40 sanctions regimes against third countries, entities, legal and natural persons, and a new embargo to tackle grand corruption is currently under consideration.
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