The Grand Duke Regulation of 7 August 2023 marks an abrupt and unforeseen change in the previous approach and practice of amending the Grand Duke Regulation of 14 December 2018 implementing the Luxembourg Export Control Act of 27 June 2018. Rather than setting out in detail the provisions and modalities of the embargo on arms exports, imports and brokering to countries subject to sanctions, the regulation of 7 August 2023 innovates and replaces these provisions in their entirety with a simple reference, without indicating specific articles, to the political decision taken within the Council of the European Union.

The new text applicable as of 13 August 2023 may result in an uncertainty as to its binding effect to economic actors. Without any doubt, the new text does not simplify the already difficult matters, but rather makes them less transparent and places greater burdens on economic operators in terms of the research they need to carry out to determine the text applicable to their legal situation. This is all the more true given that the Council decisions now referred to in Annex 1 are sometimes imprecise when it comes to determining the scope of the prohibitions and other restrictive measures affecting the arms trade with these sanctions countries.

To obtain a complete and reasoned exposé of the impact of the Grand Duke regulation of 7 August 2023, or to obtain specific assistance concerning the Luxembourg legal provisions implementing EU sanctions, please contact RespectUs under https://www.respectus.space/contact.
You may also search for applicable sanctions and embargoes, and obtain relevant legal texts about your transaction, product and destination country under sanctions via https://respectus.eu/sanctions-and-embargoes .

Issued by RespectUs, 3 September 2023.