LUXEMBOURG, December 18. /TASS/. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has rejected the appeals Russian banks Rosbank and T-Bank filed against the Council of the European Union demanding that sanctions imposed on them due to the conflict in Ukraine be lifted, a TASS correspondent reported.
"The claim has been dismissed," the judge announced in both cases and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the parties' legal costs.
As stated in the court files, both banks based their claims on a number of arguments. Rosbank and T-Bank claimed that the EU Council did not indicate the reasons for imposing sanctions against them.
"The Council put forward no individual, specific and concrete grounds allowing it to classify the applicant according to the criterion <…> making it possible to impose sanctions on ‘entities <…> involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the government of the Russian Federation," the document says.
In addition to that the Russian banks accused the Council of the EU of "a misuse of powers."
"The Council’s evidence file shows that that measure sanctions a natural person who is a third party and, more generally, that the measure is intended to sanction Russian assets in Europe and not the applicant," the document says.
The Russian banks also accused the Council of the EU of "an undue prejudice to fundamental rights, in particular the right to property."
The EU imposed sanctions on Rosbank and T-Bank in February 2023 over Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. According to court documents, both banks filed lawsuits in the EU Court against the Council of the EU in May of that year.