UN sanctions and EU sanctions

Sanctions that apply in Sweden have been adopted by the UN or the EU. Sweden does not have any nationally adopted sanctions of its own.

UN sanctions

Under the provisions of Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the UN Security Council may decide to impose collective sanctions aimed at maintaining international peace and security. When this happens, Member States are obliged under international law to implement these measures and incorporate the provisions in their own legal systems. For Sweden, this is done jointly with the other EU countries. 

EU sanctions

The EU can decide on international sanctions within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. This may either be a matter of decisions to jointly implement UN sanctions or independent decisions on sanctions, and is done by the Council of the European Union adopting a Council decision. Such decisions contain detailed commitments to implement certain sanctions.

The measures that fall under the competence of the EU (such as trade restrictions or freezing the assets of certain individuals or companies) are subsequently implemented in an EU regulation, which becomes directly applicable in Swedish national law.

The EU regulation can prescribe that certain duties must be undertaken by special competent authorities in each member country (e.g. issuing authorisations or deciding on exemptions). Other measures fall entirely under the competence of the Member States (e.g. arms embargoes and travel restrictions) and are implemented via national legislation.